

If 



O 0' 



.0 



IS OEInTTS. 



M-WEEKLY PUBL1C ?^•^0^J OF T HE BEST CURRENT & STAHDARD L1TER?VTU Re1 

Vol.8 No. 440. Oct. a, 1884. Annual Subscription, $30.00. 



HISTORY 

OF THE 

MORMONS 



BY 



LIEUT. J. W. GUNNISON 



EnUred at the Post Office, N. Y., as second-claes matter. 
Copyright, 1884, by John W. Lovell Co. 



•♦• JOHN-W - LO y4EUL- COMPANY* 

' 514 «'l6VESEY STREET 





CLOTH BINDING for this volume can be obtained from any bookseller or newsdealer, price 15cts. 



LOVELL'S LIBRARY-CATALOGUE. 



I. Hyperion 20 

3« Outre-Mer 20 

3. The Happy Boy. ....... 10 

4. Arae...... 10 

5. Frankenstein 10 

6. TheLasto£theMohicans.2o 

7. Clytie 20 

S. The Moonstone, Part 1 . 10 
9. The Moonstone, Part II. 10 

10. Oliver Twist 20 

11. The Coming Race 10 

12. Leila 10 

13. The Three Spaniards... 20 

14. The Tricks of the Greeks. 20 

15. L*Abb^ Constantin 20 

16. Freckles 20 

17. The Dark Colleen 20 

18. They were Married ....10. 

19. Seekers After God 20 

20. The Spanish Nun 10 

21. Green Mountain Boys.. 20 

22. Fleurette 20 

23. Second Thoughts 20 

24. The New Magdalen .... 20 

25. Divorce 20 

26. Life of Washington 20 

27. Social Etiquette 15 

28. Single Heart, Double 

Face 10 

29. Irene ; or. The Lonely 

Manor ° 20 

30. Vice Versa 20 

31. Ernest Maltravers 20 

32. The Haunted House. . . 10 

33. John Halifax. 20 

34. 800 Leagues on the 
Amazon 10 

35. The Crypto^m 10 

36. Life of Manon. 20 

37. Paul and Virginia 10 

38. A Tale of Two Cities .... 20 

39. The Hermits 20 

40. An Adventure in Thule, 
etc 10 

41. A Marriage in High Life2o 

42. Robin 20 

43. Two on a Tower 20 

44. Rasselas 10 

45. Alice; a sequel to Er- 

nest Maltravers 20 

46. Duke of Kandos.. 20 

47. Baron Munchausen 10 

48. A Princess of Thule. . . .20 

49. The Secret Despatch 20 

50. Early Days of Christian- 
^ ity, 2 Parts, each 20 

51. Vicar of Wakefield 10 

52. Progress and Poverty ... 20 

53. The Spy ..20 

54. East Lynne 20 

55. A Strange Story 20 

56. Adam Bede, Part 1 15 

• Adam Bede, Part II .... 15 

57. The Golden Shaft 20 

58. Portia 20 

59. Last Days of Pompeii. . . 20 

60. The Two Duchesses 20 

61. TomBrown'sScboolDays.2o 

62. Wooing O't, 2 Pts. each. 1 5 

63. The Vendetta . . . .20 

64. Hjrpatia, Part 1 15 

. Hypatiai Part 11 15 



65. 
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no. 
III. 
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"3' 
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J 18. 
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121. 
122. 
123. 
124. 
125. 
126, 



Selma .••••15 

Margaret and her Brides- 
maids 20 

Horse Shoe Robinson, 

2 Parts, each 15 

Gulliver's Travels. ... .20 

Amos Barton 10 

The Berber ..20 

Silas Marner 10 

Queen of the CoT:aty . . .20 

Life of CromweL 15 

Jane Eyre 20 

Child'sHist'ry of Engl'd.20 

Molly Bawn 20 

Pillone. 15 

Phyllis 20 

Romoia, Part 1 15 

Romola, P^.rtll 15 

Science in bhortChapters.20 

Zanoni.. 20 

A Daughter of Heth. ... 20 
Right arid Wrong Uses of 

the Bible 20 

Nigh', and Moming,Pt.I.i5 
NightandMoming,Pt.II 15 

Shaj.don Bells. 20 

MoTiica 10 

Heiirt and Science 20 

Th2 Golden Calf 20 

Th i Dean's Daughter ... 20 

Mrs. Geoffrey 20 

Pick\dck Papers, Part 1. 20 
Pickwick PaperSjPart II.20 

Airy, Fairy Lilian 20 

l\Iacleod of Dare 20 

Tempest Tossed, Part I . ao 
Tempest Tossed, P't Il.ao 
Letters from High Lat- 
itudes... . - 20 

Gideon Fleyce 20 

India and Ceylon 2c 

The Gypsy Queen 20 

The Admiral's Ward. . . .20 

Nimport, 2 Parts, each.. 15 
Harry Holbrooke. ..... 20 

Tritons, 2 Parts, each ..15 
Let Nothing You Dismay, to 
Lady Audley's Secret ... 20 
Woman's Place To-day. 20 
Dunallan, 2 parts, each. 15 
Housekeeping and Hom a 

making 15 

No New Thing..... ...20 

TheSpoopendykePapers.2o 

False Hopes... 15 

Labor and Capital 20 

Wanda, 2 parts, each ... 15 
More Words about Bible. 20 
Monsieur Lecocq, P't. 1. 20 
Monsieur Lecocq, Pt. 11 . 20 
An Outline of Irish Hist. 10 

The Lerouge Case 20 

Paul Clifford 20 

A New Lease of Life.. .20 

Bourbon Lilies 20 

Other People's Money.. 20 

Lady of Lyons 10 

Amel ne de Bourg 15 

A Sea Queen 20 

The Ladies Lindores. ..20 

Haunted Hearts 10 

LoyS| Lord Beresford. * .20 



127, 

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X85. 



Under Two Flar.s, Pt 
Under Two Flags, Pt 

Money 

In Peril of Kh Life.... 
, India; What can it te; 

us? 

Jets and Flashes . . 
Moonshine and Margue- 
rites 

Mr. Scarborough 
Family, z Parts, eac! 

Arden , 

Tower of Percemont.. 

Yolande 

Cruel London 

The Gilded Clique.. 
Pike County Folks. 
, Cricket on the Heart! 
Henry Esmond.. . 
Strange Adventures of 

Phaeton 

Denis Duval 

01dCuriosityShop,P't I. 
01dCuriosityShop,P'rt II. 

Ivanhoe, Part I 

Ivanhoe, Part II ... . 

White Wings 

The Sketch Book... 

Catherine 

Janet's Repentance. 
Bamaby Rudge, Part I 
Bamaby Rudge, Part I 

Felix Holt " 

Richelieu 

Sunrise, Part I 

Sunrise, Part II 

Tour of the World in I 

Days 

Mystery of Orcival 

Lovel, the Widower... 
Romantic Adventures ( 

a Milkmaid 

DavidCopperfield, Part 
DavidCopperfield,P'rt I 
Charlotte Temple... - . 
Rienzi, 2 Parts, each . . 
Promise of Marriage.., 
Faith and Unfaith. . . . , 

The Happy Man 

Barry Ljnadon , 

Eyre's Acquittal ...... 

20,000 Leagues Under t^ 

Sea 

Anti-Slavery Days. . . • 
Beauty's Daughters. . . 
Beyond the Sunrise . . . 

Hard Times 

Tom Cringle's Log . . . 

Vanity Fair 

L^nderground Russia. . 
Middlemarch, 2 Pts . eac 

Sir Tom 

Pelham , 

The Story of Ida... 
Madcap Violet.... 
The Little Pilgrim. 

Kilmeny «. 

Whist, or Bumblepuppy 
That J^eautiful Wretch, 

Her Mother's Sin 

Green Pastures, etc...^ 
Mysterious Island> Pt i 




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THE MORMONS, 



LATTER-DAY SAINTS. 



[N THE V ALLE Y F 



t irFat lalt lab: 



A HISTORY OF 

THEIR RISE AND PROGRESS, PECULIAR DOCTRINES, 
PRESENT CONDITION, AND PROSPECTS, 

DERIVED PROM 

PERSONAL OBSERVATION. 

DURING A RESIDENCE AMONG THEM. 



By Lieut. J.' w! GUNNISON, 

OP THE T0P0GRAPM1CAI> ENGINEERS 



NEW YORK 
JOHN LOVELL COMPANY 
14 AND 16 Vesey Street 



Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by 

LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO., 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, foi 
the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



TROWS 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, 
NEW YORK. 



PEEF ACE. 



This treatise on the fnith and con<Htion of the Mormons, 
results from a careful observation of that strange and 
interesting people, during more than a year's residence 
among them, in an official capacity. It was conceived, 
that what is influencing the conscientious character of a 
half million souls, is worthy a serious investigation, 
though not pertinent to official report under government, 
auspices. 

No apology for error is here set forth, though the per- 
secution of its advocates is deprecated. 

The writer has undertaken neither the task of criticism 
nor controversy. His aim is not ''to shoot folly as it 
flies," but to let folly tire on its own pinions, and reason 
regain its sway over erratic feeling, when the mists of 
prejudice on one side, and of fanaticism on the other, are 
dispelled by the light of knowledge. 

For those who desire facts in the history of humanity, 
on which to indulge in reflection, is this offered. It were 
far easier to give a romantic sketch in lofty metaphors, 
of the genesis and exodus of the empire-founding Saints 
— the subject is its own epic of heroism, whose embellish- 
es) 



vi 



PREFACE. 



ment is left to imaginative genius, and its philosophy to 
be deduced by the candid philanthropist. 

Truth and justice, in few words, and as near as possible 
to fallible human observation, is what this exposition 
aims at. Facts of motive and history are collected, 
which concern a portion of our own fellow-citizens. These 
are the scholars of the workshop and the field — the 
leaders are students of men and things. They have been 
schooled in patience, perseverance, and self-denial — men 
of action, tried in varied circumstances. 

My thanks are due to my friend P. R. Grist, Esq., for 
the view of the " theo-democratic " capital of Deseret. 
That gentleman accompanied the expedition thither, and, 
as an amateur, freely gave illustrations of the romantic 
scenery, for the public report printed by the United 
States Senate. What is there fully portrayed, is here 
lightly touched, for the Mormons constitute the picture 
attempted to be given, and other circumstances the frame 
in which it is set. 



July, 1852. 



NARRATIVE 



OF THE 

DEATH OE CAPT. GUNNISON. 



The subjoined letter from Judge Drummond to Mrs. 
M. D. Gunnison contains the most authentic account 
of the death of the lamented author of this volume, and 
his party, in Utah, in 1853. The stoutest heart will re- 
coil with horror from this recital of the most brutal out- 
rage ever committed on Yv'estern territory, and every 
American will regret that a full measure of justice has 
not been dealt out to the fiendish perpetrators of this 
cold-blooded murder : — 

Bethlehem, Pa., ^p^zY 14, 1857. 
Judge Deummond : — 

You will please recognise in me the widow of Capt. 
Guunison. I have just finished your letter of resigna- 
tion to the Attorney General, and see confirmed by you 
the impression I have always held myself that tlie Afor- 
mons were the directors of my husband's murder, not- 

(vii) 



viii 



NAERATIYE OF THE 



withstanding I have, botli from Brighani Young and 
Carrington, received the kindest letters of condolence, 
&c. Pardon me, then, my dear sir, for thus intruding 
myself upon you ; but if you can find the leisure, you 
will confer a lasting favor upon us by giving ns the 
particulars of such information as you have gleaned. 
You can better imagine, than I can by words express, 
the feelings that thus influence me to impose this much 
upon your time. 

M. D. Gunnison. 



Chicago, III., April 27, 1857. 

Mrs. M. D. Gunnison, Bethlehem, Pa. 

My Dear Strange Friend : — Your kind note of in- 
quiiy, under date of the 14th inst., was duly received at 
this place on the 21st inst., but owing to personal mat- 
ters, I have been wholly unable to reply to your letter 
until this day, for wdiicli delay I trust your generous 
heart will find no fault. You ask me ''to give the par- 
ticulars of such information as I have gleaned " in con- 
nection with the murder of Capt. John W. Gunnison, 
who was most foully and inhumanly murdered on the 
Sevier river, in Utah Territorj^, in A. D. 1853. This 
information I will cheerfully give you, not only as a 
sense of duty to you as the wife of a good man, who fell 
prematurely at his post doing duty, but as a matter of 



DEATH OF CAPT. GUNNISON. 



ix 



fact, which should go to the world as a portion of the 
history of that barbarous transaction. 

In the month of November, A. D. 1853, Captain Gun- 
nison and eight others (one of whom was a Mormon), 
were murdered on the Sevier river, in Utah Territory, 
and the report was quite current that they were mur- 
dered by the Indians ; subsequently, at a session of the 
Grand Jury in Juab county, Utah Territory, Hon. John 
F. Kinney, presiding, twenty-six Indians of the Par- 
vante tribe were indicted for the said murder, and, by 
some arrangement between Col. E. J. Steptoe, of the 
United States Army, and Kanash, the Chief of the 
Parvante tribe, eight Indians (some of whom were 
squaws, and one old blind Indian man,) were put upon 
their trial for murder, at ls"ephi City; and, strange to 
say, a Mormon jury found the Indian warriors not 
guilty, and as against the old, crippled, and measure- 
ably blind Indians, three in number, found a verdict of 
manslaughter, and they were sentenced to three years 
imprisonment in the penitentiaiy of Utah, being the 
full length of time prescribed by the statute for such 
ofiences. These verdicts, and the finding of the juries 
under the law and the evidence, so wounded and mor- 
tified Judge Kinney, that he at once adjourned the 
court, unavoidably coming to the conclusion that there 
was false dealing somewhere ; and in fact, not only he, 
but Col. Steptoe, Gen. Holman, the Government Attor- 
ney, Hon. Garland Hurt, the Indian Agent of the Ter- 

i 



X 



NARRATIVE OF THE 



ritory, Capt James B. Leach, the mail contractor be- 
tween San Diego in CaUfornia and Salt Lake City, and 
Columbus L. Craig, all of whom were cognizant ol the 
influences brought to bear on the trial, arrived irresis- 
tibl}^ at the conclusion that the Indians were found not 
guilty by order of the church, and that Dimick B. Hun- 
tington, an Indian interpreter, and spiritual brother-in- 
law of Gov. Brigham Young, was the man who bore 
the decree and order of the church to the jurj^, who im- 
plicitly found the verdicts according to the mandates 
of the church, as is now the universal rule and order 
of jury trials ^'in the peaceful valleys of the moun- 
tains." 

At the November term of my court, held at Fillmore 
City, in the year 1855, one Levi Abrams, a Jewish 
Mormon, w^as put upon his trial for the wilful and un- 
provoked murder of Toebe, a favorite warrior of the 
Parvante band, and during that trial much was said by 
both Indian and white witnesses relative to the mur- 
der of Captain Gunnison and his party, which raised 
strong presumptions in my mind that certain white 
men were particeps criminis to that cruel murder, but 
not wholly conclusive. In this case the jury, true to 
the law of the church, and basely false to the law of the 
land, found Abrams not guilty. 

At the same court, a favorite Indian warrior of Gov. 
Young, by the name of Eneis, was put upon his trial 
for the murder of Captain Gunnison and others, to 



, DEATH OF CAPT. GUNNISON". xi 

^ wliicli I particularly allude in this letter and at this 
time, and, upon his trial I became convinced beyond 
the possibility of a doubt, that the whole aftair was a 
deep and maturely laid plan to murder the whole party 
of engineers, or surveyors, and charge the murders 
upon the Indians (who, by the w^ay, have the credit for 
killing a great many persons). In the trial of the w^ar- 
rior Eneis, the evidence disclosed the fact that he Avas 
the property of Governor Young, and that he could 
speak English quite fluently, and that, when he left the 
city of Salt Lake, he went under the order of Governor 
Young and the church. Again, it was repeatedly 
proven that Eneis was in company w^ith several white 
men on the day before the murder, and that they w^ere 
all on their way toward the engineers' camp. 

Again, it w^as proven on the same trial by a number 
of Indian witnesses, that only four shots were fired by 
the Indians, and that all the rest were fired by the Mor- 
mons, and that, by order and direction of the Mormons, 
the Indians sprang out of the ambush, where they lay 
disguised during the night before the firing, which 
occurred about sunrise in the morning, and went across 
the river to scalp and otherwise maltreat the men iu 
their agonies of death, but more particularly to save 
the Mormon who fell in the fight, provided he was not 
fatally wounded, and told the Indians how they could 
recognise the Mormon from the Americans, which was 
by certain peculiar marks on the garment wdiich he 



xii 



NARRATIVE OF TFE 



wore next his bodv ; bat the poor fellow, with the other 
eight, had received a fatal shot, and died on the gronnd 
with his priestly roue worn next to his body. The 
white men were so accurately described, that any one 
acquainted with the principal men of the Mormon 
church could quite readily select the men as described 
hj Old Pareshont and Heap of Elk, as well as several 
others equally as honest and intelligent, who were the 
principal witnesses in behalf of the Government. And 
right here I have no hesitation in saying who some of 
them are and were, and this I do for the benefit of those 
men who may go to Utah as appointees under the pre- 
sent administration, viz. : William A. Hickman, Anson 
Call, Alexander McEaj^, Ephraim Hanks, James W. 
Cummings, Edwin D. Wolley, George Peacock, Levi 

Abrams, and Bronson, all of whom are in good 

fellowship and standing to this day in the church ; and 
althouoli the evidence on behalf of the Government 
against Eneis was clear and conclusive, and no rebut- 
ting evidence, the Mormon jury, true to the order of the 
holy priesthood, found a verdict of not guilty. 

And here, my dear friend, painful and revolting as 
it is, the true history of that sad scene requires me to say 
that the evidence disclosed the fact that several Indian 
warriors crossed the Sevier river immediately after see- 
ing that they had accomplished the work for which 
they were set apart, and proceeded to cut ofi* the legg 
and arms of the men while in the agonies of death ; 



DEATH OF CAPT. GUNNISON. 



xiii 



also, to scalp them, and then rifle their pockets of their 
contents; and take off their clothes and put them on 
themselves ; and that Eneis, tlie then prisoner at the bar, 
cnt Capt. Gunnison's body open and took out his heart 
while he was yet alive, and the heart so full of blood 
tliat it bounded on the ground after being taken oiit ; 
and not content w^th this, but cut out his tongue, and 
otherwise cut and mangled his body. 

True it is, my dear friend, I know that this dark and 
bloody picture will prostrate every nerve of your tender 
form ; and painful and heart-sickening as it is for me 
to think of, let alone pen anything in connection with 
that revolting murder, but duty to you, duty to the 
country, duty to a broken and violated law, duty to 
bleeding and down-trodden humanity, duty to a correct 
history in connection with the dark and bloody code 
of the order of the High Priesthood of the Utah Mor- 
mons, and above all, duty to the fair reputation of a 
brother officer engaged in the faithful discharge of his 
duty, and one who fell in the noonday of life at the 
hands of an organized band of systematic pirates, rob- 
bers, and murderers, and whose blood yet cries to hea- 
ven for a witness to attest in thunder-tones the dread 
but sad and solemn truth connected with his tragic fate, 
all seem to require that when I answer his wife, the 
companion of his youth, who so naturally applies to 
the man, of all others, possessed of the legal truths con- 
2 



xiv DEATH OF CAPT. GUNNISON. 

nected with this history, and I should tell them pre* 
cisely as they are, and not suppress any part thereof. 

I can well imagine, Madam, your long sufferings and 
anxieties relative to the death of your husband, and I 
most truly assure you that your conclusions relative to 
his death were well founded. I leave you and all others 
to conclude whether I am not fully justified in my con- 
viction in the premises, and whether I could have ra- 
tionally come to any other conclusion than the one to 
which I here refer, as well as in my letter of resignation 
to Attorney-General Black. 

With an ardent desire that you may live to a ripe old 
age, enjoy all the blessings which this life can afibrd, 
and, above all, in that list of blessings, good health, 
live to see the day when the foul stain of Mormon op- 
pression and tyranny shall be effectually checked in 
this our happy country, your husband's untimely death 
vindicated by the courts and laws of this land, and, after 
death, in that Grand Lodge above be re-united to the 
partner and companion of your youth. 

W. W. Drummond, 



CONTENTS 



PART 1. 



CHAPTER I. 

Description of the country settled by the Mormons — Soil — Amount 
of population — Great Salt Lake — Utah Valley, Mountains....?. 18 

CHAPTER II. 

Union of civil and religious law — Theo-Democracy " — Priests 
are civil officers - Origin of Mormonism — Persecutions — Colo- 
nizing the mountains — Crickets and Gulls — Elag of all nations " 23 

CHAPTER III. 

Spiritual claims and temporal expectations of the Mormons — Ro- 
man Catholic Church to absorb the Protestant — Sunday exercises. 3^ 

CHAPTER IV. 

** Latter-Day Saints* faith" — Interpretation of theological terms — 
The Bible — emendations — Deity, more perfected — Genealogy 
of the Gods — Progression of man into Gods — Queens of hea- 
ven — Sacraments — Baptism for the dead — Faith — Gospel — 
Matter eternal and intelligent — Birth of Spirits and their pro- 
bation — Soul — Death S9 



CHAPTER V. 



Interpretation continued — Original sin and Satan — Tongues — Re 
eurrection — Prophetic time — Priesthoods — Spies — Masonry — 
Summary comparison of sources — " Hieroglyphics " of Utah . ... 52 



xvi 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Kind dealings with strangers — Gold emigrants — Casuistry — 
" Many wife" system or Spiritual wives " — Courtship — Power 
of the President on marriages — Desertion of sealed wives — 
Adoption of families — Profanity — Social life — Brothers' widow 

— Rank of wives 64 

CHAPTER VII. 

Power of the Seer — Submission of disciples — Education and schools 

— Justice and Laws of the Lord — Loyalty to the Union — Re- 
cord of the crimes of nations — Success of Morm'onism — Deve- 
lopement — Lost tribes and four undying witnesses — Generous 
policy of the United States Government 78 



PAET II. 

RISE AND EARLY PROGRESS OF MORMONISM. 
CHAPTER L 

Rule for testing the truth of Mormonism — Character of the Smiths 

— Seer-stone — Revivals — Angelic vision — Joseph's four years 

— ** Money-Digger " — " The Manuscript Found " — Its conversion 
into a Golden Bible — Martin Harris ruined — Plan of converting 
Jews and Indians, and harmonizing sects of Christians — Found- 
ing the church — Pratt and Rigdon — Extacies at Kirtland 88 

CHAPTER IL 

Selection of Zion in Jackson County, Missouri— Corner stone — 
Tithes declared — First persecution — Kirtland speculations and 
Endowments — Settlement in Clay County, Missouri... 104 

CHAPTER in. 

Mormons defy Missouri — Danites — Missouri war — Expulsion of 
the sect and horrors of the exodus — Effect in strengthening Mor- 
monism , 108 



CONTENTS. 



xvii 



CHAPTER IV. 

Nauvoo City — Temple — Aqua — Manner of choosing Missionaries 
— "Spiritual wife revelation" — Old Bachelorism in the moun- 
tains lift 



CHAPTER V. 



Joseph's views of government — Dissensions in Nauvoo — Martial 
law — Imprisonment of leaders — Murder of Joseph and Hyrum 
— Character of the Prophet — His genius and policy — Election of 
Brigham Young 121 

CHAPTER VI. 

Mobs continue to annoy — Temple finished and consecrated — Ex- 
pulsion — Missouri bottom — Battalion of 520 men — March to 
Salt Lake — Journal — Right to their own laws — Anniversary 
Pageant — Constitution of the United States 130 



CHAPTER VII. 



Miracles Dignity of Labor and Slavery — Proselyting — Land 
titles — Indian wars — Utahs — Military post — James Bridger — 
Pacific Rail-Road 140 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Mormon treason — Laws — Five causes of breaking up of Mormon- 
ism — Right of self-government — Character of Mormonism — 
Chronology 164 



HISTORY 

OP 

THE MORMONS. 



DOMESTIC POLICY OF THE MORMONS. 



CHAPTER 1. 



THEIR COUNTRY. 



Among the teeming events of the present era, one of the most 
remarkable is the formation of a state by a peculiar people, in 
the far interior of America, which has assumed the name of 
Des-er-et, — a mystic word, taken from the Book of Mormon,* 
signifying, the Land of the Honey-Bee. 

Its present capital and principal settlement is in the valley of 
ithe Great Salt Lake. In this and contiguous vales are the gar- 
dens of the mountains, in which the bee and its fostering com- 
panion, man, have lately been colonized, and from which neither 
will carry away the stores gathered into the domestic hive. In- 
dustrious alike, the sweet bounties of Providence are collected, 

* The " Latter-Day Saint* pretend to derive the word Mormon from 
\ihe Gaelic and a branch of ^le Teutonic dialects : compounding it from 
(Mor, more or greats and from Mon, signifying good, and therefore it 
ji^mports — more good, great good. Mprmon, morraonos, Greeic, signifies 
a female spectre, a phantom, a hideous monster. 

1 These two definitions may be deemed to convey the difierent opinions 
Df the supporters and opposers of Mormonisra. 




14 



THE MORMON COI NTRY. 



to be luxuriated upon at home, in all the freedom of their being 
and constitution of their nature. This valle}^ is situated midway 
between the states of the great Mississippi and the golden empire 
rising to life and influence on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. 
It is isolated from habitable grounds; having inhospitable tracts 
to the north and south^ and the untimbered slope of the Rocky 
Mountains, nearly a thousand miles wide, on the east, and nearly 
a thousand miles of arid salt-deserts on the west, broken up by 
frequent ridges of sterile mountains. This fertile tract, there- 
fore, presents itself to us with varied associations, an object of 
curious contemplation. 

The Mormon settlements are in that remarkable depression 
styled The Great Basin- — a region embraced in the Rocky Moun- 
tain land out of which no waters flow. That Alpine district 
extends along the western side of the American continent, cover- 
ing sixteen degrees of longitude in the Utah latitudes, and is a 
succession of nearly parallel mountain ranges, having a north 
and south direction. Between these ridges are the valleys, whose 
average width may be twenty miles. In some places, the ranges 
are abruptly terminated for a space, leaving a gap, termed a 
kanyon, or pass, according to the width of the break in the 
mountain. These are names given by the trappers, who were 
the pioneer white men into those solitudes. 

The absence of one or more short ranges, opposite each other, 
will occasionally unite several valleys into one. It is through 
the kanyons or narrow gorges, with perpendicular sides of rock, 
and the still wider passes into the plains between, that remarkably 
level routes for travel are found across the continent. The ^' South 
Pass^^ in the great eastern chain, is more than a hundred milea 
long, or wide, as it is usual to designate it, and then going west, 
you enter the great coal basin through which G-reen river flows. 
A narrower pass is near Bear river, and crossing over a gentle 
swell, one enters the Weber river kanyon, and emerging upon the 
beautiful Karaas prairie, that extends to the Timpanogas, the road 
lies down its bank into Utah valley. Here the choice of northern 
or southern routes is offered. The one by the Mary's river is most 



THE MORMON COUNTRY. 



15 



followed in summer; but a high pass on the Sierra Nevada has to 
be surmounted. The other is south-westerly in direction, acrosii 
the G-reat Basin, and doubles the mountain into the head of the 
Tulare valleys, whence the way to San Francisco, or some Pacific 
port, is to ^"»e selected on feasible and fertile ground. 

The Great Basin is that high level, over four thousand feet 
above the ocean, between the Nevada and Wahsatch ranges. It. 
is a desert in character, with some fertile strips flanking the bases 
of the highest ridges. This vast region is mountainous; the 
ranges generally from two to three thousand feet high, and parallel 
with the main ones on the sides, with some partial cross ridges 
that form minor basins. In the interior, therefore, fresh water 
becomes scarce, for these hills do not collect sufficient snow in 
winter, the only wet season, to furnish irrigating streams, and 
fertilize the bench of alluvion at their base, or water the plains 
between ; and the consequence follows that these tracts are parched 
and arid, and frequently so impregnated with alkali as to make 
them unfit for vegetable life. Artemisias and Salicornias contend 
for a miserable existence on portions of the plains; and bunch 
grass furnishes grazing on the hill-sides for antelope and deer. 
There is not properly a '4-im,^^ or continuous mountain, particu- 
larly on the north; but a divide^' between the parallel ranges, 
which is sometimes a swamp, out of which the waters flow in 
contrary directions; and the position of this feature may be 
observed, on the map of the Great Valley, to the west of Bear 
river. This interior basin is about five hundred miles in diameter 
either way, and in the eastern part have the Mormons settled. 

Along the western foot of the Wahsatch range, for three 
hundred miles, is a strip of alluvion, from one to two miles in 
width, — and, in the valley of the Jordan, this is widened by what 
can be reclaimed by irrigating from its waters; and the spots simi- 
larly situated, in other valleys, furnish the only land suited to 
I cultivation in the Utah Territory. This arises from the want of 
rain during the growing season ; and water for the crops is only to 
be procured from the numerous streams that flow down the moun- 
tain gorges, fed during the spring, and into midsummer, by the 



16 



THE xMORMON COUNTRY. 



melting snows. The higher mountains retain the snow, and 
irrigate ihe bases the longest time, and where the streams cannot 
be taken at the kanyon mouths, and led off for the farmer's use, 
the ground is lost to the plough. Most of these creeks are 
absorbed in -the porous alluvion before they have reached a mile 
from the base, and frequently re-appear in very diminished 
quantity in springs, at too low a level for use, in the arid plain 
that borders the salt pools or lakes. The land around Salt Lake 
is flat, and rises imperceptibly on the south and west for several 
miles, where it is not broken up by the abrupt hills, and is a 
soft and sandy barren, irreclaimable for agricultural purposes. 
On the north the tract is narrow, and the springs bursting out 
near the surface of the water, the grounds cannot be irrigated; 
but the eastern side, above the line of overflow when the lake 
rises with the spring freshets, is fertile and cultivated between the 
mountain and shore. 

On the south of the lake, and above the alkaline barrens, lie 
the more fertile valleys of the Jordan and Tuilla, separated by the 
Oquirrh Mountain ; and these are divided from the plains which 
lie to the south, -between the same ranges, by the Traverse 31ouu- 
tain, which is a cross ridge, diminishing in height to the westward. 
Here is fine grazing during the entire year, and the east of Jordan 
Valley is watered by bold streams that traverse a strip of alluvion 
twenty miles long by eight in width, to the banks of the Jordan. 
This great stream rushes with a foaming torrent through the 
kanyon cut in the cross range, and descends about one hundred 
feet in a distance of two miles, where the current becomes more 
gentle and winding, to the great lake below. The banks are 
steep and high, immediately below the kanyon, but gradually 
retreat and slope away to the Oquirrh hills, and a canal can easily 
be carried on the level of the kanyon, winding on a curve to 
Spring Point, twenty miles from the city. The chalky waters of 
the Jordan can be used for irrigating eighty additional square 
miles in the valley, and furnish water-power very accessible, and 
to any required extent, for milling, machinery, or manufactures. 
Ascending the Traverse range, a beautiful panorama uf lake, 



THE MORMON COUNTRY 



17 



plain, and river, embosomed with lofty and romantic mountains, 
bursts upon the view. Here is the lovely Utah Lake and its 
winding outlet; and the Timpanogas, with four other rivers, 
fringed with cottonwoods, a sight so seldom seen in these regions, 
and, by contrast, enchanting. All the valley on the east side of 
the lake is fertile, and the waters throughout fresh and sparkling, 
as they rapidly descend to the quiet reservoir. 

The valleys afford perennial pasturage, but the hill-sides furnish 
the bunch grass only during the warm months of the year. It 
seeds in summer, and is germinated by the autumnal rains, and 
grows under the snowy covering of winter. In the spring, as the 
snow-line retreats up the slope, under the melting influence of the 
approaching sun, the cattle and wild grazing animals follow it to 
the mountain peaks until midsummer, to be driven down again as 
the accumulating snow, beginning on the summits about the 
equinox, descends in a few weeks to the base. When it rains on 
the valleys, the snow falls on the mountains, and, during winter, 
an immense quantity is drifted into the kanyons and passes, to the 
depth sometimes of hundreds of feet, blocking up the roads, and 
making prisoners at home, those who sojourn in those solitudes. 

The difficulty in procuring fencing materials, has caused the 
fields to be left imperfectly enclosed, and slightly protected; and it 
becomes necessary to set the youth to attend the cattle during the 
day, and drive them to the corrals^ or fenced yards, at night. 
This position of these two descriptions of land, the cultivated and 
the waste, renders the people there residing, equally a pastoral 
and an agricultural community. All the cultivated lands, that is, 
those brought under irrigation, can be allotted to raising cereals 
and vegetables. The flocks and herds driven to the hills in 
summer, and fed upon the plains in winter, will furnish one half 
the provisions required to sustain the population that can be 
accommodated on the cultivated belt between the pastures. The 
soil, in its mineral composition, is of the most fertile des<3ription, 
having been formed out of disintegrated feldspathic rocks of the 
summits, and mixed with the debris and decomposed limestones 
from the lower altitudes. As many as sixty bushels of wheat are 
2* 



18 



THE MORMON COUNTRY. 



usualiy grown to the acre, and when strict regard has been paid to 
watering the crops, a greater yield has been given, and, in one 
instance, a hundred and eighty fold was reaped from the drilling 
of one bushel upon three acres; and the average of sustenance 
from root crops is more abundant still. The potato grows luxu- 
riantly, and of a delightful quality, and the sugar-beet attains to 
an enormous size, from which good molasses is manufactured ; and 
the attempt will soon be made to extract sugar from the same, to 
supply the demands of the market. 

In order to estimate the probable amount of population which 
can well be sustained in the territory, we may safely rely on an 
equivalent of two thousand pounds of flour to the acre of the 
plowed lands, and, drawing the meat part of the ration, or one 
half, from the herds fed elsewhere, there could be fed four thou- 
sand persons on the square mile. Such a density of inhabitant?* 
it can hardly be supposed will ever be attained there; but, 
modified by the peculiar circumstances of the case, and social 
character of the people, and giving a far less amount to the mile, 
we may calculate that the territory of Utah will maintain, with 
ease, a million of inhabitants. Stretching southward from the 
point we have been noticing, and passing over the rim of the 
Great Basin into a cotton-growing region, and where it is contem- 
plated to try the sugar-cane; having abundant iron mines every 
where in its whole extent, and inexhaustible beds of coal in the 
Grreen River Basin— with hill pastures, the finest in the world for 
sheep and wool raising — with water-power for manufactures on 
every considerable stream- — there are elements for a great and 
powerful mountain nation ; and the part such a force could play 
toward those on either side is not an insignificant one for our 
consideration. 

There are three salt lakes in Central Utah; the greatest of 
them surrounded with romantic scenery, and invested with interest 
by many a legend among the early discoverers and mountain 
trappers. The water is perfectly saturated with salt, and so dense 
that persons float, corklike, on its waves, or stand suspended with 
ease, with the shoulders exposed above the surface. 



THE MORMON COUNTRY. 



19 



The shores of its bays in summer are lined with the skeletons 
and krvae of insects, and the few fish that venture too far from 
the mouths of the rivers ; and these form banks that fester and 
ferment, emitting sulphurous gases, offensive to the smell, but not 
supposed deleterious to health • and these, often dispersed by 
storms, are at last thrown far up the beach to dry into hard cakes 
of various dimensions, on which horses can travel without break- 
ing them through ; the underside being moist, the masses are 
slippery and insecure. The salt-boilers affirm that they obtain 
two measures of salt from three of the brine, and they have 
christened this sheet of water, which is seventy miles long, with 
the name of the "Grreat Briny Shallow. There are several 
beautiful islands enclosed, two of them of considerable magnitude, 
with a mountain ridge through the centre two thousand feet high, 
and fresh springs of water, which have caused them to be selected 
by the shepherds and herdsmen for their occupation. The silence 
that surrounds one when standing on these islands, and having an 
unobstructed view of every part of the vast expanse, is very 
impressive ; and as he floats on the surface of the waves, the eye 
traces several terraces around the contour of the islands, and along 
the adjacent mountains, on the whole circumference parallel with 
the horizon ; and they seem to indicate that these have once been 
the borders of a mighty inland sea, whose waters retired suddenly 
to certain distances, by regular upheavings of the land, or equal 
outbreaks, to a lower level. Three principal terraces, each retreat- 
ing about fifty feet above the other, may be counted ; and their 
exact planes and magnitude show the comparison of the works of 
nature with the feeble imitations of man, in beauty, sublimity, 
and permanence. 

At the base of the hills, around the lake, issue numerous warm 
springs, that collect in pools and smaller lakes ; inviting aquatic 
fowl, during the winter, to resort to their agreeable temperature, 
and where insect larva furnishes food at all times; and the soil is 
so heated that snow cannot lie in their vicinity. In some places 
springs of different temperatures are in close proximity, some so 
hot that the hand cannot be thrust into them without puin; and 



20 



THE MORMON COUNTRY. 



near the Bear is a depression, in which issue three fountains 
between the strata, within a space of thirty feet; of which one ia 
a hot sulphur, the next tepid and salt, and the uppermost, cool, 
delicious drinking water — the three currents unite, and fiow off 
through the plain, a large and bold river. There are also warm 
breathing^' or gas-intermitting fountains, chalybeate and gypsum 
springs, of high and low temperatures. Those in the vicinity of 
the city have been arranged into delightful bathing reservoirs and 
bath-houses, out of the tithing fund, to which all are counselled 
to resort for cleanliness and health, at so small a charge, that it 
becomes a public luxury, safe and beneficial. It is a refreshing 
and delightful sport to bathe in the Salt Lake, but on emerging, 
the person is completely frosted over in purest white, and a fresh 
spring is a necessary appendage — it may be called the whitewash- 
ing ewer, applicable to the body if not the character. 

Wild game abounds for the table, in the antelope, deer, and 
feathered tribes — the bear, panther, and smaller animals of prey, 
for the adventurous sportsman, range through hill, valley, and 
desert; and the angler can choose his fish, either in the swift 
torrents of the kanyons, where the trout delights to live, or in the 
calmer currents on the plains, where he will find abundance of the 
pike, the perch, the bass, and the chub. Along the brackish 
streams, from the saline springs, grows a thick tangled grass, and 
the marshy flats are covered with fine reeds or dense festucas. In 
early summer the shepherd lads fill their baskets with the eggs 
deposited in that cover by the goose, the duck, the curlew, and 
plover J or, taking a skiff, they can row to the Salt Lake islands, 
and freight to the water's edge with those layed for successive 
broods by the gull, the pelican, the blue heron, the crane, and the 
brandt. 

Every day of the year has a different landscape for the eye, in 
the variety of light and shade cast by the sun, as he approaches 
toward, and recedes from, those frowning cliffs and snow- clad 
peaks — and the different coloured garb of the seasons, nn lure's 
change of fashions, so much imitated by the lovers of dress, on 
whom her lessons are not bestowed in vain, comes to aid in 



THE MORMON COUNTRY. 



21 



breaking up the monotony. On the south-east rises the lofty head 
of the Lone Peak, with double buttressed pillars on the summit, 
that look like an open portal to giant chambers in the clouds; and 
not far off, on the north, stand the Twin Peaks, side by side, like 
conjugal partners hesitating awhile on earth, before they pass 
through this inviting door to mansions amid the stars. When 
these barren masses of grey rock are viewed near at hand, the 
mind labors under its load of sublimity, grandeur, and awe — but 
when standing on some distant eminence, the eye seems to grasp 
the infinite before it, and distance softens the harsh outlines into 
wavy curves, with closing vistas between, lost in the horizon's 
edge; the senses become enraptured for awhile with vastness and 
beauty combined; but soon there comes w^elling up from tho 
depths of the soul the feeling that something still is wanting, and 
coldness, sterility, and vacuity broods over the landscape. The 
full charm is not there — for the accessories of art spring not forth 
to make an agreeable variety, nor the forest-trees pointing to the 
skies, under whose shady retreats the weary of earth may contem- . 
plate their destiny. 

Hidden away in the profound chasms and along the streams 
whose beds are deeply worn in the mountain sides are the cedar, 
pine dwarf-maple, and occasionally oak, where the inhabitants of 
the vale seek their fuel and building-timber, making journeys to 
obtain these necessaries from twenty to forty miles from their 
abodes. 

The more exposed parts of the country are annually run over 
by the fires set by the Indians to kill and roast the crickets which 
they gather in summer for winter food. These fires ascend the 
furzy hill-sides and penetrate the forest kanyons — and it is a 
beautiful but melancholy sight to see the withered vegetation swept 
away by the curling flames as they leap up the cliffs, lighting up 
at night the surrounding country with fitful splendours. One of the 
Btrenuous efforts making to improve the countr}^, is to arrest this 
destructive process and convert the prairies into desirable woodlands 

The atmosphere of the valley is light, and breathing is a real 
luxury. The view being so unobstructed, an idea is prevalent that 



22 



THE MORMON COUNTRY. 



small objects can be seen at great distances distinctly, and some 
have asserted that a man could be noticed at fifty or a hundred 
miles. This is erroneous. In winter, if snow covers the ground, 
and the cold air is free from moisture, a dark object shows very 
far : — but in summer the atmosphere is filled with clouds of float- 
ing insects that give a bluish haze, and make it a labor for the 
eye to use telescopes for geodetic purposes, and astronomical obser- 
vations on the sun are very imperfect. On the barren plains and 
the arid valleys, after the dry season has a little advanced, the mi- 
rage will take up objects and distort them in the most fantastic 
manner ; treos, rocks like houses, artemisia patches, and the white 
alkaline efflorescing flats, will seem to vibrate and pass before you 
like a panorama of garden groves, with beautiful parterres and 
pleasure-loving lakes and castellated mansions: — a small stick 
close at hand will start up an immense giant at a distance ; and 
far off things mock you with their retreatings as you endeavor to 
reach them; thinking that a few minates may briiig ; ( u to the 
landmarks or a pool of fresh water; and when hours of weary 
travel have elapsed, your disappointment is complete as they sink 
out of sight beneath the horizon above which refraction has raised 
them. Sometimes a man walking alone, will be multiplied into a 
troop marching with beautiful military exactness, cind a few horse- 
men riding in a disorderly manner converted into a troop performing 
various evolutions ; and where then is reason to apprehend that 
enemies are near, there imagination lends a fearful aid to magnify 
the picture, and you must be careful to take the description of a 
mountain guide with its due share of exaggeration. 

At the mouth of the kanyons the breezes at night are ever fresh 
and strong : they issue into the valley and are occasioned by de- 
scending currents of air, cooled on the higher peaks and summits 
behind, and blow like the stream from a funnel ; which makes the 
residence near those openings in summer a safe retreat from the 
attacks of the universal mosquito, and the "sand flies'^ oi 
"brules'^ that in unprotected places annoy the denizens. 



CHAPTER 11. 



CrVlL AND THE0CRAT1<DAL CHARACTER. 

Such then is the general appearance of the country settled by th« 
Mormons, and for a minute description, I beg leave to refer to the 
able report of the Surveying Expedition by Capt. H. Stansbury 
laid before Congress. But the peculiar character of the founders 
of Deseret, their energy, union and hopes, stimulated by their re- 
ligious views, more especially demand our notice; and this subject 
is equally interesting to the politician, the philosopher, and the 
theologian. We found them, in 1849, organized into a state with 
all the order of legislative, judicial, and executive offices regularly 
filled, under a constitution eminently republican in sentiment, and 
tolerant in religion ; and though the authority of Congress has not 
yet sanctioned this form of government, presented and petitioned 
for, they proceed quietly with all the routine of an organized self- 
governing people, under the title of a Territory ; — being satisfied 
to abide their time, in accession of strength by numbers, when they 
may be deemed fit to take a sovereign position ; being contented 
so long as allowed to enjoy the substance, under the shadow of a 
name. They lay and collect taxes, raise and equip troops for pro- 
tection, in full sovereignty, on the soil they helped to conquer first, 
and subdue to use afterward. 

While professing a complete divorce of church and state, their 
political character and administration is made subservient to the 
theocratical or religious element. They delight to call their sys- 
tem of government, a Theo-Democracy ; and that, in a civil 
capacity, they stand as the Israelites ^f old under Moses. For the 
rule of those not fully imbued with the spirit of obedience, and 
sojourners not of the faith, as well as for things purely temporal, tri- 
bunals of justice, and law-making assemblies, are at present ren- 
dered necessary. But the rules and regulations vouchsafed from 

(23) 



24 



CIVIL AND THEOCRATTCAL CHARACTER. 



the throne of Heaven are fixed and unchangeable, which have 
preceded all present necessities, and by them are they guided in 
the manner of providing for, and executing temporal affairs : — so 
that those holding the revelations of God's are the ones 

who make laws according to Truth, and the rulers or executors are 
clothed in Righteousness, and the end is Peace. In fact, their 
President of the church is the temporal civil governor, because he 
is the Seer of the Lord, and rules in virtue of that prophetic right 
over the home and Catholic Latter-Day Saints of the Church of 
Jesus Christ,^' usually stjded the Mormons. And should one be 
assigned to them, not of their creed, or other than their chief, he 
would find himself without occupation. He probably would be 
received with all due courtesy as a distinguished personage, cor- 
dially received in social intercourse so long as his demeanor pleased 
the influential members and people : — but as Governor — to use 
their own expressive phrase, — he would be let severely alone.' 
Were he to convoke an assembly, and order an election, no atten- 
tion would be paid to it, and he would be subjected to the mortifi- 
cation of seeing a legislature, chosen at a different time, enacting 
statutes, or else the old ones continued, and those laws enforced 
and the cases arising from their conflict adjudicated, by the present 
tribunals of justice, under their own judges. This certainly has 
been proclaimed as their determined policy, though there might 
arise circumstances that would cause them to dissemble for a time ; 
and the peaceful character of the people would be assigned as the 
reason why no other burden was thrown upon foreign functionaries 
than the labor of drawing their salaries from the distant treasury. 
The dignity and the form of courts might easily obtain, to which 
Gentile sojourners or emigi*ants could resort, but the members of 
the Latter-Day Church would know nothing about them; their 
causes are to be settled in the church and not go to law out of it. 
The church is the court for doctrinal error — for other offences 
they have the statutes of Deseret, and what they call Common 
Mountain Law.'' 

For, among themselves, all disputes are to be settled under a 
'^church'' organization, to which is attached the civil jurisdiction, 



CIVIL AND THEOCRATICAL CHARACTER. 



25 



with officers, from the inferior justice of the peace up to the 
Governor. But the justice is a Bishop of a ward in the city or 
precinct of ^he town or county; the Judges on the bench of the 
superior courts are constituted from the High Priests, from the 
quorums of seventies, or from the college of the Apostles; and 
the Seer is the highest ruler and consulting Judge. A double 
name is therefore required, by which the same persons execute the 
functions in their different official capacities, according as they 
relate to prescribed civil or spiritual matters, except on opinions, 
or purity of faith. Even the legislature can make no law upon, 
or regulating what is given in "Revelations^^ to the prophet, only 
so far as is necessary to carry them into effect in social transac- 
tions. 

The entire management is under the Presidency, which consists 
of three persons, the Seer and two counsellors. It is this board 
that governs their universal church ; called universal because they 
claim to have preached in almost every nation, and in the United 
States in each congressional district; and have gathered societies 
called "Stakes of Zion,^^ arranged on the model of their home 
assembly, on the islands of the ocean and either continent — and 
all are to obey the Presidency ; at home in all things, and abroad 
in spiritual things, independent of every consideration — and the 
converts are commanded "to gather, gather, gather to the moun- 
tains,^' as fast as convenient and compatible with their character 
and situation. They have made an exception in favor of the 
Pacific islanders, of whom they claim to have many thousands, 
whose effeminacy and habits unfit them for the labors and rugged 
climate of the rocky land; to whom several iVmerican families 
have been sent, to reside among and superintend them. 

The number of inhabitants in the mountains has been greatly 
over-estimated, but there are probably in Utah and on the frontiers 
of the states, ready to move up the coming year, about thirty 
thousand; and the number is fast increasing by the influx from 
England, Wales, and from the continent of Europe; every possi- 
ble effort is made to bring up the emigrants, and swell the 
numerical strength to a position that can demand the independent 
3 



26 



CIVIL AND THEOCRATICAL CHARACTER. 



place of a-state in the Union — great inducement is held out, by 
guaranteeing wages for a fixed term of years to ail superior and 
practical workmen in textile fabrics, in cutlery and machinery, 
no matter what shall be their religious belief. 

ORIGIN OF THE MORMON CHURCH. 

This people are there under assumed prophetic direction, and il 
is not amiss to glance at their origin, and the means by which this 
late desert and solitary wilderness is now blossoming under the 
hand of this peaceful, industrious, and harmonious community. 

The founder of the Mormon Sect was Joseph Smith, a native 
of Vermont, who emigrated when quite young in his father^s 
family to Western New-York. According to his autobiography, 
published in a series of letters, he was of a religious turn of mind, 
and, when seventeen years of age, became greatly interested in the 
'^revivals of religion, often occurring among the ^^denominations'' 
in that section of country. In one of these times his feelings 
were so powerfully wrought upon that he gave himself up to con- 
tinued prayer for some days — and meditating still at night, he at 
length arose while all the family were hushed in sleep, and poured 
forth his soul, agonizing'' to have made known to him the truth, 
among the conflicting opinions he heard by the various sects. His 
apartment became suddenly illuminated, and an angel appeared 
and conversed familiarly with him, and instructed him in the way 
of righteousness^ informing him also that there was no true 
ehurch upon the earth. The doctrine taught on this point is, that 
the church which was once established, had fallen under the rule 
given by the prophet, and had ^'changed the ordinances," ^'broken 
the everlasting covenant," and ^'corrupted the f lith ; " for which 
cause it was removed from earth — or, in their figurative expression, 
'•the man child was caught up into heaven," which means that 
the priesthood was taken away fifteen hundred years ago. And 
Joseph was told that his prayers were heai'd and registered in 
the books on high, and that, being dearly beloved of the Lord, 
he should be commissioned a priest after the order of Melchisedek, 



Cn^IL AND THEOCIIATICAL CHARACTER. 



27 



and restore that line among men, organizing a church of faithful 
persons, to receive the Lord in the Millennium, which time should 
be hastened according to tbeir degree of iiiiglity faith, for he was 
determined '-to cut the vrork short in righteousness.'^ Tn after 
visits he was further instructed that "truth should spring out of 
the earth' ^ — O^^-) — ^^^^ that, accordingly, he should be conducted 
to the hill Cumorra, in Palmyra, Xew York, and receive from out 
the ground holy and prophetic records concerning a family of 
Jews that emigrated from Jerusalem in the time of Zedekiah, 
and were miraculously led to America, across the eastern ocean. 

On being guided to the spot, he found a square stone box^ 
eight inches high, covered with a slab, cemented upon it; and 
made repeated trials to open it. He was struck back by an 
invisible blow, and informed, in answer to his earnest prayer, that 
the want of success was owing to his listening to the suggestions 

, of Satan, who had walked at his elbow on the way, and had made 
him resolve to make use of the golden plates on which the records 
were engraved, as well as the contents when published, to advance 
his temporal fortun-'s. This vras sin — to think he should become 
famous was unhol}' ambition; that he should be rich and powerful 
thereby, was avarice. 

But, on sincere repentance and submission, four years after, the 
contents of the box were shown to him, the angel opening it; 
Avhich consisted of the "Sword of Laban,''^ brouojht from Jeru- 

ijealem, a breastplate and two stones, "bright and shining,^^ and 
golden plates engraved with characters, and united at the backs 
by rings. A portion of the records was received, constituting the 

||Book of Mormon, in which are depicted, much in the style of the 
[Bible Chronicles, the various fortunes of the four brothers of the 
jemigrating family, and of their descendants — how some tribes 
Were evil in their practices, despising reproof, and became cursed 

I R'ith a dark skin and loathsome habits, and were made scourges to 
others when falling awa}^ from the truth — the savings, teachings, 
md warnings of their prophets, who foretold by name the advent 
)f the Savior of the world — the organization among the purer 
'>eople on this continent, of a church by Christ, who came down 



28 



CIVIL AND THEOCRATICAL CHARACTER. 



to tbeiii after his ascension at Jerusalem, and gave them his gospel 
nearly in the words of the Sermon on the Mount, and how that 
for apostasy these Christians were finally destroyed by the Gadian- 
ton robbers and the red men — the last prophet, Moroni by name, 
sealing up the Records, and depositing them, with the sword, 
[Trim and Thummim, and breastplate, at Cumorah, there to remain 
until "the fullness of time'' should demand their exhumation; 
and which should be brought forth, "by way of Gentile,'' for the 
"convincing of both Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ." 
(See Preface, B. Mormon.) 

The restoring angel was the spirit of this same Moroni, the son 
of Mormon the Seer, who had made a compendium of the holy 
writings and delivered them to him ; and Joseph, now constituted 
the Seer, by means of the Urim and Thummim, placed in a bow 
and looked through upon the plates, began their translation, and 
preached the news of his important mission. A convert, named 
Cowdery, baptized him, it being so commanded by the angel, in 
order that a beginning should be made ; and the prophet then 
baptized his convert. At this ceremony in the wobds of Penn- 
sylvania, in the clear Susquehannah, or one of its branches, there 
were present, to approve of this necessity, and by their sanctions 
remit irregularity, the angels or spirits of Moses and Elias of the 
old dispensation; as also Peter, James, and John of the new.* 
In 1830 the first organization was made in Manchester, New 
York, and that is the Epoch of the New Church of the Latter- 
Day Saints. Revelations were made to Joseph, and certain men 
were designated by the revelator for missionary labor, and converts 
increased ; or, as one of the members of that day, and an apostle 
now, said, "the word of the Lord greatly grew and magnified, 
and many were obedient to the faith" — and soon we find that at 
Kirtland, Ohio, a temple was in process of building. 

But, for certain reasons, hereafter to be developed, this place 
was abandoned, and a spot designated by revelation in Missouri, 
was declared to be intended for them, as their inheritance — for 



* Book Doc. and Gov. 27. 



PERSECUTIONS. 



29 



^Hhere was the New Jerusalem to be built by the saints, after a 
pattern sent down from heaven, and upofi the spot where the 
garden of Eden bloomed, and Adam was formed/^ Tlie altar on 
which Adam did sacrifice, was shown to Joseph, at least some of 
the stones of which it was built; and, on the north side of the 
river, a city was located in the place where Adam blessed his 
<^hildren. 

In that state, cruel persecutions followed — driven from Zion, 
they took refuge in adjoining counties — and again crimes of a 
dark dye were alleged against them ; the leaders were imprisoned 
for treason, and they aver that in one jail they were furnished 
with human flesh for food : the flesh of their own slaughtered 
comrades. They sufi'ered greatly; and finally, expelled by force of 
law and the mob, they took refuge in Illinois, and began the 
building of a temple in the city of Nauvoo ; a city which in a 
few years had twenty thousand inhabitants. But, though caressed 
for a time, they fell under suspicion, as they allege, most 
unjustly, on account of the flocking in of horse-thieves and 
counterfeiters, who carried on secretly their nefarious plans, as in 
other towns; and all the crimes committed in the country around 
were maliciously attributed to them. It ended in the murder of 
Joseph, the Seer, and Hyrum, the Patriarch, by the mob at 
Carthage jail, in 1844, and the re-organization of the major part 
of the society, under Brigham Young, as the Lord's Prophet and 
Seer to the saints, to receive the revelations for them in a church 
capacity, with the title of First President. 

A temporary lull ensued in the tempest of persecution, but the 
storm gathered force again. Such threats were made, that it was 
necessary to seek another home. A prophecy having been made 
by the present venerable patriarch, and the uncle of the late seer, 
that they must retire to the wilderness and endure perils and trib- 
ulations for a time, before their final triumph over their foes, a 
delegation was dispatched to the mountains; and Salt Lake Vvil- 
ley was selected, in the far-ofi" California of Mexico, as a resting 
place. 

3* 



30 



COLONISING. 



SETTLING SALT LAKE VALLEYS. 

Under the conduct of Brigham the Seer^^ a colony of 4000 
persons was planted there in 1847; — the Presidency arrived on 
the 24th of July, which day was one of joy and gladness, and its 
anniversaries are to be held in great esteem, and celebrated with 
rejoicings evermore. In five days a large tract was ploughed, 
planted with potatoes, and the city-creek dammed, and irrigating 
ditches filled ; and the spot on which they first rested being the 
most eligible site in the valley, a city was immediately laid out. 
A fort enclosing about forty acres, was built, by facing log-houses 
inward, and picketing four gateways on each side of the square, 
making a line nearly a mile and a half in length — the timber be- 
ing hauled several miles, and cut in the distant kanyons. 

The land was consecrated by solemn ceremonies to the Lord and 
his saints, and a permanent location made on territory, to which 
none of the wandering tribes of Indians could show a title, which 
they thought of such validity, that they ought to purchase it, or 
make remuneration to them for its occupancy. 

During the following year, every month was so mild that they 
ploughed and sowed in each, — but though the winter was auspi- 
cious and all things so favorable, they were so reduced in provisions 
as to eat the hides of the slaughtered animals, and eagerly searched 
them out of the ditches, and tore them from the roofs of the 
houses, to boil them for the table, and they dug side by side with 
the miserable Utes for the wild roots used by them for food. * But 
the most formidable enemy they had to contend with, as the crops 
were nearing maturity, was the army of black, ungainly crickets 
— a frightful bug,^^ as a Liverpool sojourner called it when first 
he saw one : — which, descending from the mountain-sides, destroy- 
ed every green herb in their way. In vain did the sorrowful far- 
mers surround their fields with trenches, and fill them with water ; 
the black host, leaping in, floated over, and with wonderful instinct, 
kept on the course of march, and mounting up the wheat-stalk, 
would cut it off" at the curve which was bent by the weight of the 
fruit more precious than golden seeds. Whole Aimilies might bo 



THE AVHITE GULLS. 



31 



seen standing guard, with branches and boards in their hands, ut- 
tering i^Lid shouts, and endeavoring to turn back and beat off the 
invaders. In some instances, they succeeded in changing the di- 
rection of the march ah^ng the streams, and destroyed many in the 
waters, but it was only a partial relief on a few points of attack. 

But better defenders soon came to their aid. These were the 
most beautiful birds of the valley, the glossy white gulls, with 
bright red beaks and feet ] dovelike in form and motion, with plu- 
mage of downy texture and softness. After the first moulting of the 
crickets, they came in flocks to feast on the banquet which was so 
bountifully spread for their reception. In early dawn, they rise 
from the nesting islands of the Great Lake and gliding through 
the air, gracefully alight on the smooth and gentle slopes at the 
last of the terraces at the mountains' base, and feast the livelong 
day. 

Luxurious like their Roman prototypes, when filled to satiety, 
they disgorge the meal, and return with renewed appetites to the 
plentiful repast; and just as the sun touches the highest mountain- 
peaks in the ranges of the Great Salt Desert to the West, they 
expand their long wings, and soar away in countless multitudes to 
their insular retreats, secure from molestation. A few vigilant sen- 
tinels pass to and fro during the day, watchful of the callow 
young; caring for their wants, and conveying intelligence seemingly 
to the old and the young, at home and abroad, that all's well.'' 
Since that season, the crops of the Mormons have amply met their 
wants; protection to their fields is more perfect, and the assiduous 
gulls continue their annual visit, which at first was supposed mirac- 
ulous ; and for the three past years there has been a surplus of 
food, which was sold to the gold emigrants at a less price than at 
fort Laramie, four hundred miles nearer the States. 

Their admirable system of combining labor, while each has his 
own property, in land and tenements, and the proceeds of his in- 
dustry, the skill in dividing oif the lands, and conducting the irri- 
gating canals to supply the want of water, which rarely falls be- 
tween April and October, — the cheerful manner in which every 
one applies himself industriously, but not laboriously: — the com- 



MORMON EXTENSION. 



plete reign of good neighborhood and quiet in house and fields, 
form themes for admiration to the stranger coming from the dark 
and sterile recesses of the mountain gorges into this flourishing- 
valley : — and he is struck with wonder at the immense results; 
produced in so short a time by a handful of individuals. 

This is the result of the guidance of all those hands by one 
master mind ; and we see a comfortable people residing where, 
it is not too much to vsay^ the ordinary mode of subduing and 
settling our wild lands could never have been applied. 

To accomplish this, there was required religious fervor, with 
the flame fanned by the breezes of enthusiasm — the encircling of 
bands into the closest union, by the outward pressure of persecu- 
tion — the high hopes of lading up a prospective reward, and 
returning to their deserted homes in great prosperity — the belief 
of re-enacting the journey of the Israelitish church under another 
Moses, through the Egypt already passed, to arrive at another 
Jerusalem, more heavenly in its origin, and beautiful in its 
proportions and decorations. 

Single families on that line of travel would have starved or 
fallen by the treachery of the Sioux, the cunning of the Crows 
and Shoshones, or the hatred of the savage Utahs. Concert and 
courage of the best kind were required and brought into the field, 
and the result is before us — to their own minds as the direct 
blessing and interposition of Providence, to others the natural 
reward of associated industry and perseverance. 

Four other colonies have branched off from this parent one, 
and cities with thickly populated and rapidly growing suburbs, 
extend on a line of two hundred miles, from Box Elder creek on 
the north, to the Little Salt Lake on the south, and thence towards 
San Diego : at the turn of the Nevada jMnuntain, a i^ancho has 
been purchased and a station made, soon tn ! .> followed by others; 
whereby a chain of posts will be established for the convenience 
of receiving their emigration by way of a seaport on the Pacific. \ 

The Great Salt Lake City was laid out into squares in 1847 ; 
the streets are one hundred and thirty-two feet wide, with twenty 
feet side-walks, and the City creek divided to run along each walk 



NEW MORMON SETTLEMENTS. 



83 



and water a colonnade of trees^ and also to be led into the gardens. 
The ^3is contain each nearly an acre^ and face on alternate streets 
with cioht lots in each block. 

The site is on a scarcely perceptible slope^ except the northern 
part, which rises upon the first natural terrace, and lies in the 
angle of the main Wahsatch range, running north and south, and 
a giant spur that makes out directly to the west, and terminates one 
half mile from the Jordan River. The city is four miles square, 
and touches the river bank on the west side. It can be watered 
by several creeks, and a canal twelve miles long, to cross three 
other streams, is constructed; to bring the Big Cottonwood along 
the eastern terrace to the present capital of this new empire. 

Forty miles north is Ogden City, beautifully located near the 
junction of Ogden and Weber rivers — and sixty miles south is 
another plat, soon to be occupied, on the Timpanogos; and thence 
one hundred and thirty miles in the same direction, is the city of 
Manti, and settlement of the San Pete Yalley. Paroan, or Iron 
City, so named from the abundance of ore, and facilities for 
procuring fuel for their furnaces, is in the valley of the Little 
Salt Lake, where it is reported that a much larger body of 
irrigable land is found than in that first settled. 

In Tuilla Yalley, thirty miles west of the temple, is a settle- 
ment ; and there are now in successful operation ten saw and five 
grist mills, and others erecting in all the newer locations. A 
large, commodious state-house was completed in 1850 ; and a 
wooden railway laid to the Red Butte quarries, four miles distant, 
for transporting the fine red sandstone to the Temple Block, where 
a gorgeous pile is to be erected, which shall surpass in magnificence 
any yet built by man, and which shall be second only to that 
finally to be constructed by themselves, when the Presidency shall 
be installed at the New Jerusalem, on the temple site of Zion. 

To the north of Temple Block, and close by, towers up and 
overlooks the Temple City, the "Ensign Mound. It terminates 
the great spur, and is conspicuous in approaching the city, from 
every quarter. On this mountain peak there is soon to be 
unfurled the most magnificent flag ever thrown to the breeze, 



34 



MORMON PROSPERITY. 



constructed out of the banner flags of all peoples Joiii'd in 
symbolical unity, "the flag of all nations shall wave above the 
sacred temple ; then shall they verify the decree given by the 
Prophet Isaiah — (ch. ii. 18, 25.) — All ye inhabitants of 
the world and dwellers upon earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an 
ensign upon the mountains — and he will lift up an ensign to the 
nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the 
earth — and it shall come to pass in the last days that the moun- 
tain of the Lord^s house shall be established in the tops of the 
mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations 
shall flow into it/' 

Their comparative comfort and degree of prosperity is signifi- 
cantly shown by the fact that they canvassed the country, to 
ascertain how many inmates there would be for a poor-house, and 
finding only two disposed to ask public bounty, they concluded 
that it was not yet time to build a house of charity : and this 
among the thousands who, three years before, were deprived of 
their property, and could, with the utmost difficulty, transport 
their families into the valley. 



CHAPTER 



SPIRITUAL CLAIMS OF THE MORMONS. 

Such then is the outward appearance of this separate people. 
But it is not enough in this enquiring age to portray merely their 
external condition, and the country they inhabit. 

They claim to be separate and peculiar on higher and diffe- 
rent grounds, than worldly prosperity and human laws; — and 
those pretensions, with the consequent action, have called forth 
much vain and erroneous speculation, from not fully comprehend- 
ing the principles which give rise to their conduct, in their relations 
to other communities and individuals. The pretension is, that they 
constitute the only true Church of God and His Son, and their 
hopes rest upon the expectation of the intervention soon of the 
King of Kings, by which, under the guidance of the Spirit, they 
shall gather to themselves individually, all who are destined and 
prepared to listen to the voice of Truth; and then all the sects of 
Christendom will be absorbed into that one most concentrated and 
most numerous. 

When these two hosts are fairly marshalled, the one under the 
banner of the Pope of Rome, and the saints around the " Flag 
of all nations,^^ 'Med by their Seer,^^ wearing the consecrated 
breastplate, and flourishing the glittering golden sword of Laban, 
delivered him by angelic hands, from their long resting-place ; then 
shall be fought the great battle, mystically called, of Gog and Ma- 
gog : — the Lord contending for his people with fire, pestilence, 
and :^\mine ; and in the end, the earth will become the property 
of the Saints, and He will descend from His heavenly throne to 
reign over them through a happy Millennium. 

(85) 



36 



SPIRITUAL EXPECTATIONS. 



During the preparations for those battles, to be more fierce than 
man ever jet has fought, the Jews will be erecting another tem- 
ple at the Palestine Jerusalem, on which their long-expected Sa 
vior will stand and exhibit Himself in the conquering brightness 
that they supposed he would bear at the first appearance, and their 
hearts will be bowed as one man to receive Him, with repentant 
humility for the past, and glorious joy for the future, and the city 
will rise in great magnificence ; — and the New Israelites of Amer- 
ica will have their head-quarters of the Presidency in Jackson 
County, Missouri, where they will build up the New Jerusalem, 
the joy of the whole earth ; and, at the presence of the Lord of 
Majesty, the land which was divided'^ in the days of Noah into 
continents and islands, shall be Beulahj married^' and become 
one entirely as at the original creation, — and, from these two cities, 
villas and habitations shall extend in one continuous neighbor- 
hood, among which shall prevail entire concord : no one will have 
the disposition to rebel or be allowed to act against the harmony 
of the whole. 

And there shall be thrown up,^^ between the two Jerusalems 

the highway on which the lion hath not trod, and which the 
eagle's eye hath not seen — then the temple described by ICzekiel 
will be erected in all its particulars for the exercise of the functions 
of the two priesthoods, — for the Aaronic, held by the tribe of 
Levi, who will return to their duties and renew animal sacrifices; 
and for the Melchisedek, the greater priesthood, held by those 
commissioned through Joseph the Seer. 

At the end of the Millennium, those who have not been sincere 
in their obedience to the Lord's reign will be permitted to show their 
rebellious spirit a short time under the direction of their captain 
Satan ] and at last be overwhelmed with destruction from the pre- 
sence of the good : — and the Earth, which is believed to be a 
creature of life, will be celestialized and gloriously beautified for 
the meek and pure in heart. 

Such is a summary outline of their claims and expectations, but 
the preaching from the pulpit, and extempore teachings, are usu- 
ally confined to the promulgation of doctrines like those commonly 



ROUTINE OF WORSHIP. 



37 



taught by the Christian sects which hold to Faith, Repentance, 
Baptism, and the Resurrection of the Body. 

Their mode of conducting worship is to assemble at a particular 
hour, and the senior priest then indicates order by asking a bless- 
ing on the congregation and exercises — when a hymn from theit 
own collection is sung, prayer made extempore^ and another sa- 
trcd song, followed by a sermon from some one previously appoint- 
ed to preach; which is usually continued by exhortations and 
remarks from those who "feel moved upon to speak.'' Then 
notices of the arrangement of the tithe labor for the ensuing week, 
and information on all secular matters, interesting to them in a 
church capacity, is read by the council clerk, and the congregation 
dismissed by a benediction. 

While the congregation is assembling and departing from the 
house, it is usual for the large and excellent band of music to per- 
form anthems, marches, and waltzes, which drives away all sombre 
feelings, and prepares the mind for che exciting and often eloquent 
discourses. As there are a large number of Welsh in the mee\i 
ings, and many of them not understanding the English language, 
a version of the principal discourse is sometimes made to them by 
an interpreter, and a Welsh choir will then exhilarate all present 
by singing one of their hymns, to one of their charming, wild, 
romantic airs. 

We will now open up the view of their particular doctrines, 
first premising that what is here stated is drawn from the perusal 
of some of their accredited books, and heard in their pulpit 
preaching — or obtained in free conversation with their welJ- 
instructed and principal men. Nor would I, in the least, wish to 
iL.srepresent the doctrines themselves, or abuse any confidence of 
the friends, whom I feel justified to call such, among them, on 
account of their kindness, oftentimes shown in circumstances to 
be appreciated. Many points were elicited by direct interrogation, 
and others obtained from the oral discourses on the preacher's 
stand — and as it was a common thing for the speakers, when not 
of the Presidency, to appeal to their superiors, who sat beliind 
them to correct any thing mistaken for the teaching of the Holy 
4 



38 



MORMON DOCTRINES. 



Spirit, through their mouths; all such doctrines W( &'upposc to Vje 
adopted as true which were suffered to go unrebuked. That most 
of this exposition is the constant subject of teaching, we by no 
means affirm — as in all Christian sects, it is seldom that abstruse 
themes are discussed before a promiscuous audience — the principal 
part of this theology is the strong meat^' reserved for those who 
have been fed on the milk, as weaker members. 

We first introduce an article taken from the paper called the 
Frontier Guardian, edited by Orson Hyde, of the Apostolic 
College, and I believe at the head of it, giving the faith of the 
Latter-Day Saints. 



CHAPTER IV. 



LATTER-DAY SAIis^TS^ FAITH, 

^'We believe in God the eternal Father^ and his son Jesus 
Chiist, and in the Holy Ghost. 

"W^e believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and 
not for Adam's transgressions. 

We believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind 
may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the 
Gospel. 

We believe that these ordinances are — 1st. Faith in the Lord 
Jesus Christ: 2d. Repentance: 3d. Baptism by immersion for the 
remission of sins : 4th. Laying on of hands for the gift of the 
Holy Spirit : 5th. The Lord's Supper. 

We believe that men must be called of God by inspiration, and 
by laying on of hands from those who are duly commissioned to 
preach the Gospel, and administer in the ordinances thereof. 

We believe in ihe same organization that existed in the primitive 
church, viz : apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, &c. 

We believe in the powers and gifts of the everlasting gospel, 
viz : the gift of faith, discerning of spirits, prophecy, revelation, 
visions, healing, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues, wisdom, 
charity, brotherly love, &c. 

We believe the word of God recorded in the Bible, we also 
believe the word of God recorded in the Book of Mormon, and 
in all other good books. 

We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now 
reveal, and we believe that he will reveal many more great and 
important things pertaining to the kingdom of God tmd Messiah's 
second coming. 

(•39) 



40 



FAITH or THE MORMONS. 



We believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the resto 
ration of the ten tribes, that Zion will be established upon the 
western continent, that Christ will reign personally upon the earth 
a thousand years, and that the earth will be renewed, and receive 
its paradisaical glory. 

We believe in the literal resurrection of the body, and that the 
rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are 
expired. 

We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God according 
to the dictates of our conscience, unmolested, and allow all men 
the same privilege, let them worship how or where they may. 

We believe in being subject to kings, queens, presidents, 
rulers, and magistrates ; in obeying, honoring, and sustaining 
the law. 

We believe in being honest, true, chaste, temperate, benevolent, 
virtuous, and upright, and in doing good to all men ; indeed, we 
may say that we follow the admonition of Paul, we ^' believe all 
things,^' we ^'hope all things,'^ we have endured very many 
things, and hope to be able to endure all things.'' Every thing 
lovely, virtuous, praiseworthy, and of good report, we seek after, 
looking forward '^to the recompense of reward.'' But an idle or 
lazy person cannot be a Christian, neither have salvation. He is 
a drone, and destined to be stung to death and tumbled out of the 
hive." 

The books regarded as authoritative with them, and which give 
d fuller illustration are — The Book of Slormon — Doctrines and 
Covenants — Voice of Warning — The Grospel Reflector — The 
Times and Seasons, edited under the eye of the Prophet — The 
Millennial Star — and the writings of Joseph the Seer and Parley 
P. Pratt, wherever found; and the '^General Epistles of the 
Presidency in Deseret." 

We will not take up this seriatim, but remark, that it is only 
when we come to the definition of terms, that the peculiarities of 
belief will appear in their theology. They believe in the sacred 
character of the Bible, but what interpretations do they give to its 



FAITH OF THE MORMONS. 



41 



pages ? • - they believe in Grod, but what is the character assigned 
to the Deity? — they adopt the Sacraments, but of what efficacy 
and application to Salvation ? 

Of the Bible it is taught, that in the main we have a correct 
translation of that given by Inspiration in the version called King 
James' ; — but that there have been many interpolations by design 
of the corrupters of Christianity, and many misunderstandings of 
several passages. These have all been corrected by Joseph the Seer, 
to whom was given ^^the key of all languages,^' — or as he says 
in The Last Sermon, the one he preached at Nauvoo, and which 
was reported by some one and printed after his death, I know 
more than all the world put together, and the Holy Ghost within 
me comprehends more than all the world, and I will associate with 
it,'' — and thus having direct inspiration to do this work, the emen- 
dated book is prepared and is soon to be printed. As a specimen 
of the alterations on this vital subject, we quote from the same 
paper as above ; I will make a comment on the very first sen- 
tence of the history of the creation in the Bible. It first read, " 
^The head one of the Gods brought forth the Gods.' If you do 
not believe it, you do not believe the learned man of God. And 
in further explanation it is observed that it means, The Head God 
called together the Gods, and sat in grand council. The grand 
counsellors sat in yonder heavens, and contemplated the worlds 
that were created at that time.' The Bible is therefore held to be 
the foundation book, but instead of taking it in the usual sense, 
there must be a certain change of meaning in the most important 
point, which will be elaborated when we speak concerning the De- 
ity. But when it is read, it is to be taken in its most literal sense 
and they most pointedly condemn those who spiritualize its contents, 
saying that God is honest when he speaks with man, and uses 
words in their literal acceptation and ^ never palters in a double 
sense.' " But the Word of God is held to be not confined to this 
one Book, and, of others in existence, they take of equal authority 
the Book of Mormon, and Doctrines and Covenants." The lat- 
ter is composed of a lecture on Faith in six sections, written by 

Rigdon, though published in the name of the Proph/)t, and several 
4 * 



42 



FAITH OF THE MORMONS. 



RevelatioDs to the Seer and Revelator; and these books are claim- 
ed to be a 'Hhree-fold cord'^ agreeing in sentiment and purpose, 
and unfolding the dealings of God toward man and the church 
Additional revelations are made from day to day according to th^ 
exigences of the people and church ; and this is assigned as the 
reason why they are so far in advance of the Christian world in 
spiritual, heavenly knowledge, and causes them to sneer upon all 
who adhere alone to the old revelations, and to pity them for their 
blindness and ignorance. A flood of light has poured into their 
souls and raised them to a view of the glorious things above" — 
and Development may be called the distinguishing feature of their 
church. The E-ock on which the church is founded is by them 
declared to be Hevelation. And it was on what " had been re- 
vealed to Peter that the church was to rest: — in other words 
we may state their doctrine to be, that Revelation, which is now 
with them, is the Rock of the Church of Christ. 

" Thus saith the Lord ***** my son thou art blessed 
henceforth, that bear the keys of the kingdom given unto you" — 
^' verily I say unto you, the keys of this kingdom shall never be 
taken from you, while thou art in the world" — iVnd * * I give 
unto you a commandment, that you continue in the ministry and 
Presidency, and when you have finished the translation of the 
prophets you shall from henceforth preside over the affairs of the 
church and the schools, and from time to time, as shall be manifest 
from the Comforter^ receive revelations to unfold the mysteries of 
the kingdom, and set in order, and study and learn and become 
acquainted with all good books, and with languages, tongues, and 
people." This extract from the Revelation given in 1833 and 
found in the Book of Covenants, page 329, is here inserted to 
show the character of such heavenly communications and authority 
for my statements.' They will allow that their Revelations are 
contradictory to each other, but that is explained by the different 
"circumstances" under which they are given; heaven's govern- 
ment is conducted on the principle of adapting revelation to the 
varied circumstances of the children of the kingdom.'' 



FAITH or THE MORMOx\S. 



43 



DEITY. 

Let *as now return to the consideration of the article first named 
in the Latter-Day Saints' Faith concerning the Deity. The Su- 
preme Hierarchy that is worshipped and invoked is a Trinity or 
rather a duality of Persons. 

Grod the Father/' is held to be a man perfected : but so far 
advanced in the attributes of his nature, his faithj intelligence and 
power, that in comparison with us, He may be called The Infinite. 

The " Son, Jesus Christ," is the ofispring of the Father by the 
Virgin Mary. The eternal Father came to the earth, and wooed 
and won her to be the wife of his bosom. He sent his herald- 
angel Gabriel to announce espousals of marriage, and the Bride- 
groom and bride met on the plains of Palestine, and the Holy 
Babe that was born was the tabernacle " prepared for and as- 
sumed by the Spirit-Son, and that now constitutes a God. 

^^The Holy Ghost" is the concomitant will of both The Father 
and The Son ; the one mind possessed and acting in each, which 
produces universal harmony of thought, wisdom, and being, 
throughout their dominions. The Spirit difi'ers from the Father 
and Son, in being merely a Spiritual Soul or Existence, which has 
never taken a tabernacle, that is, a material body as the Gods have, 
and has not therefore died, after passing the period of probation, 
and thence through the Besurrection to perfection. 

In this statement I have endeavoured to give their true teach- 
ing, and do not intend to criticise or explain any apparent contra- 
dictions. The authority for the first two propositions is found in 
the Last Sermon of their great prophet, which relieves me, in a 
measure from the pain of stating them, — but facts and principles 
are here involved on which the candor and judgment of the reader 
must be exercised. What is influencing the life-philosophy of 
hundreds of thousands is not a thing of slight importance, or to 
be misstated with impunity. 

" First, God himself, who sits enthroned in yonder heavens, is 
a man like unto one of yourselves, that is the great secret. If 
the vail wa-s rent to-day, and the great God who holds this world 
in its -orbit, and upholds all things by his power, if you were to 



44 



FAITH OF THE MORMONS. 



see him to-day, you would see him in all the person, image, and 
very form as a man ; for Adam was created in the very fashion 
and image of Grod; Adam received instruction, walked, talked, 
and conversed with him, as one man talks and communes with 
another." * * I am going to tell you how God came to be 
God. God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the 
Bame as Jesus Christ himself did, and I will show it from the 
Bible. Jesus said, as the Father hath power in himself, even so 
hath the Son power ; to do what ? why, what the Father did, that 
answer is obvious : in a manner to lay down his body and take it 
up again. Jesus, what are you going to do? — To lay down my 
life as my Father did, and take it up again. 

There is a quotation extant from the author of the Voice of 
Warning," to the effect that we worship a God who hath both 
body and parts ; who has eyes, mouth, and ears, and who speaks 
when, and to whom he pleases — who is just as good at mechanical 
inventions as at any other business." 

But we are referred by their teachers to the Apocalypse, where 
it is written of the redeemer : " And hath made us kings and 
priests unto God and his Father ;" and to the Apostle that said, 
''there are gods many and lords many,'' to prove that the Father 
had his Father ^ and they talk boldly of the grandfather, great- 
grandfather of God, thus tracing back almost ad infinitum to the 
'' Head God, that called the grand council together when the 
worlds came rolling into existence." We, however, have only to 
limit our worship, and obey our Heavenly Father and His Son, 
who are revealed to us by the Spirit; and "when we know how 
to come to him, he is ready to come to us and unfold the heavens 
to our knowledge.^' The Son (when a spirit) took of the 
unformed ^'chaotic matter; element which had an existence from 
the time God had, and in which dwells all the glory/' and formed 
our earth and the planetary world, peopled, and has redeemed it. 
He is to be worshipped as Lord of all, and heir of the Father in 
power, creation, and dominion. ''What did Jesus do? — why, I do 
the things that I saw my Father do when worlds came rolling 
into existence — I saw my Father work out his kingdom with 



FAITH OF THE MORMONS. 



45 



fear and trembliDg, and I must do the same/^ (Last Sermon, 
p. 61.) 

So of each man, whose spirit hath the same Father — by obe- 
dience and faith he may be perfected, and attain to the power of 
forming a planet, peopling and redeeming it, over which he may 
reign forever. And all who do not obey the revelations now sent 
to them, and properly fulfil their probation, will only succeed to 
an inferior glory and be permitted to act as servants, " hewers of 
wood and drawers of water,^^ in some one of the King Saints' 
Kingdoms; just fitted to the "glory'' they have lived for, or 
such as their vicious lives will allow. In reply to the question, 
what will you do for us? — they will say, we may make you 
bootblack or kitchen scullion, or if you behave pretty well and 
not molest the saints, you may be raised to butler or baker, and 
carry the train, on state occasions, of our queens in paradise. 
Things on earth, and customs and ceremonies, are patterned after 
things in heaven, and will be continued in the spirit world and 
future abodes of the gods. Their prophet thus instructs the 
faithful — "You have got to learn to be gods yourselves; to be 
kings and priests to God ; the same as all the gods have done, by 
going from one small degree to another, from grace to grace, from 
exaltation to exaltation, until you are able to sit in glory, as doth 
those who sit enthroned in everlasting power/' xlnd in seeking 
for a place in the eternal worlds, we are informed that there are 
four different glories to strive for ; the celestial, or highest, the 
telestial, the terrestrial, and lake of fire — of the sun, of the stars, 
of the earth, and the burning caldron. 



SACRAMENTS. 

The Book of Covenants teaches that baptism is duly admi- 
nistered by being fully immersed in the water, and that any other 
manner of applying the element is a vain ceremony. Baptism, 
legally partaken of, is for remission of sins; sins only forgiven in 
baptism. The further peculiarity of the subject consists in a 
vicarious immersion of living persons for their dead friends, who 



46 FAITH OE THE MORMONS. 

have never had the opportunity, or neglected it when living. This 
is called Baptism for the Dead.*^ There being, according to 
their view, a probationary state in the spiritual world, while that 
on earth exists, so that by proxy one can fulfil all ^^righteousness/' 
by submitting to all prescribed rites, of which baptism is one — 
it is presumed that those gone before have repented, and are now 
desirous of baptistic benefits; and hence it is enjoined that the 
greatest responsibility that God has laid on us is to look after 
our dead/' and ordered, that a man be baptised for deceased 
relatives, tracing back the line to one that held the priesthood 
among his progenitors, who, being a saint, will then take up the 
place of sponsor, and relieve him of further responsibility. All 
those who are thus admitted to salvation will be added to the 
household of the baptized person at the resurrection, who will 
then prefer his claim, or do as our Lord did at the grave of 
Lazarus, and call them forth in the name of Jesus; over whom, 
he, as the most distinguished of the line, will reign as patriarch 
for ever ; and his rank and power among kingly saints will be in 
proportion to the number of his retinue. 

The authority for this application of the rite is grounded on 
the interrogatory of the Apostle : ^' Else what shall they do which 
are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all ? why are 
they then baptized for the dead?'' — and Joseph observes in his 
sermon, Every man who has got a friend in the eternal world 
can save him, unless he has committed the unpardonable sin, so 
you can see how far you can be a Savior;" the Apostle says, 
^4hey without us cannot be made perfect." 

The child begins its accountability at eight years of age ; up to 
that time the parents are responsible, but then they must have it 
baptized into the church ; and infant baptism is held to be an 
abomination and a sin. Regeneration is begun in baptism, and 
perfected by the laying on of hands, by which the recipient is bap- 
tized by the Holy Ghost through the Melchisedek priesthood. 

The Sacrament of the Communion is done, for a ^^remembrance 
of the lody and blood of The Son," that they may always re- 
member him and keep his commandments, and that ^^they may 



FAITH OF THE MORMONS. 



47 



have his Spin^. to be with them.'^ This is according to the Book 
of Mormon, and bread and wine are to be used as the symbols. 
But by a revelation it is forbidden to use the wine made by the 
Gentiles, and until they can procure the pure juice of the grape 
from their own cultivation, they use water in place of it, for " it 
mattereth not what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, when ye 
partake of the Sacrament, if it so be that ye do it with an eye sin- 
gle to my glory; — wherefore ye shall partake of none [wine] ex- 
cept it be made new among you; and the bread and a pail with a 
tin or glass vessel to dip the water is carried around among the 
congregation on their seats, by the bishops, and offered to young 
and old who generally partake ; and this is to be done on every 
Lord^s Day. 

After sufficient time has elapsed to build a temple at ^^Zion^' 
or any appointed stake, and at Jerusalem, no other places are 
allowed for the baptisms for the dead/^ A font will be construct- 
ed in the house of the Lord, for these baptisms which were institu- 
ted before the foundation of the world — "and elsewhere, saith the 
Lord your God, they cannot be acceptable unto me, for therein are 
the keys of the Holy Priesthood ordained, that you may receive 
honor and glory. (Book of Cov. prophets^ Rev.) 

The sixth General Epistle instructs the Saints throughout the 
world to gather home, and pay all tithing dues, that a Temple may 
be soon completed for the Baptisms of living and dead. It says ; 
^^To be prepared for a celestial heaven, they want tke blessings of 
The Terrestrial Temple — and if any pass the temple ordinances 
without having paid all tithe dues, Jesus will at last declare they 
are thieves and robbers who have climbed up some other than the 
appointed way ; the ordinances of the temple are as necessary 
for a full salvation as baptism is for a partial salvation; — the 
voice of the Good Shepherd is, come home,^^ all ye saints. 

FAITH. 

The teaching upon this article is rather abstruse — but we may 
perhaps convey its import in a few words, mostly gleaned from 



4:8 FAITH OF THE MORMONS. 

the book of Covenants. It seems to be considered an exercise of 
the will in intelligent beings on matters of belief, for acquiring 
celestial glory, and accomplishing, holy purposes and works. It 
is the assurance that men have in the existence of unseen things, 
and the principle of action in all intelligent beings; without it, 
both mind and body would be in a state of inactivity — and, ^^by 
faith we receive all temporal and spiritual blessings.' ' But it i& 
not only the principle of action, but of power, in heaven or in 
earth; for we find that hj faith, God created the worlds — (Heb. 
xi. 3.) and by this we understand it to be the principle of power 
in the bosom of God by which he works : — " and, take this prin- 
ciple or attribute away from the Deity, he would cease to exist." 
(See Book of Gov. first chapters.) 

God spake, chaos heard, and worlds came into order by reason 
of the Faith that was in him^^ — he had element and the prin- 
ciples of element, which can never be destroyed, to organize it out 
of; — and as these aeon atoms are ^^intelligent on a self-existent 
principle, which God himself could not create,' ' we must class the 
aggregate, or bodies of matter, with life and knowledge capable 
of exercising faith ; which view is sustained, in the language of 
one of the Presidency, namely ; — " for all creation is alive, even 
the earth itself and the minerals and metals and every other thing 
connected with it;" — and the first lecture on faith has these 
words in the last paragraph : " Faith, then, is the great governing 
principle, which has power, dominion, and authority over all 
things.'' 

THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL. 

In the seventh article of Belief this phrase occurs. By it W6 
may understand, according to their interpretation, the same thing 
as the Laws of Nature, or whatever name is used to express the 
arrangement of the universal order of things sprung out of the 
" two self-existent principles of Intelligence and Element, or mat- 
ter; " and it is The Law under which the primordial Gods came 
into being. The prophet has not left on record, to my knowledge* 
>.he mannei in which the Head God originated. But he says 



FAITH OF THE MORMONS. 49 

> 

"Grod himself could not create himself/' and ^^intelligence exists 
upon a self-existent principle : it is a spirit from age to age, and 
there is no creation about it." In conversation with the more 
philosophical ones, this question of origin came up frequently, and 
the explanation elicited was one of opinion merely, and deduced 
by the reason from the principles already taught by authority. 
It was, that in the far eternity , two of the elementary particles 
of matter met in consultation and compared intelligences , and 
then called in a third Atom to the council, and, united in one will, 
they became the first power, to which no other could attain as 
they had the priority; and by uniting more atoms or exercising 
the power which the combination gave, would thenceforth progress 
for ever. Under this union arose the plenitude of power, to make 
and enforce a Law to govern itself and all things. Thus was the 
Everlasting Gospel constituted the law of nature. And out of this 
Intelligence, according to the Law, a God was begotten, not made, 
and the other Gods sprung from him as children. By the law of 
universal order, sex was made to exist, coeternally with all moral 
existence and life, and not only the Kings, but the Queens of hea- 
ven derive their origin equally under its mandates. These are the 
mothers of our spirits and the gods, and of all spiritual existences 
also; each of which is confined to its proper sphere and in its own 
order : and these are called and sent as heralds or ministers from 
one planetary system to another, or to the different orbs in the 
same system of worlds. A portion of this order, or Law, is what 
is called the everlasting gospel in the Kevelation of St. John, 
which was in the hand of the angel " flying in the midst of hea- 
ven to proclaim again on earth concerning the Church of Christ; 
that angel was Moroni, who brought the gospel in its fulness to 
Joseph the Seer,'' and is now preached to men, with the signs 
following " that were promised to the Apostles of the Lord. 

To the spirits begotten by the Father, (for the mind of man is 
not created, " God never did have power to create the spirit of 
man at all — the very idea lessens man in my estimation — I know 
better;" Last Sermon, p. 62.) a choice is given, either to remain 
as they are, or to take a material body and ^'descend beJow all 
5 



50 



FAITH OF THE MORMONS. 



things/^ in order to rise above all things^ whereby they can obtain 
a gi'eater glory than they now enjoy, even to the celestial. This 
explains why we are here in this earthly tabernacle. Each spirit 
chose to make the probation/^ and thus ignoring all of its past 
existence, is attempting to work out a salvation of immense worth, 
and attaining to perfection in the attributes of power, dominion, 
and happiness. 

When the spirit takes possession of its tabernacle, which is 
probably at the quickening of the embryon, the man is, or 
becomes a living soul. Man is therefore a duality. The elements 
of his composition are gross matter, called the body, and spirit. 
The latter is also matter, but more refined or elementary, and so 
constituted as to permeate the former, control and vivify it. It 
is not visible to mortal eyes without a miracle, nor is it pondera- 
ble ] it passes through the body as the electric fluid through the 
earth — it is in reality more substantial than the body, for it cannot 
be changed or destroyed, it existed co-equal with God,'' and 
could have no beginning, for then it would be possible to have an 
end — it is as immortal as God himself.'' (Sermon, p. 62.) The 
union or fusion of these makes ^^the living soul," as related by 
Moses in the creation of Adam — death separates them for a useful 
purpose, but then the Spirit watches over every particle of its 
beloved tabernacle, until the fiat of the resurrection is given, when 
the body shall again be clothed upon," and perfect man be the 
result in an eternal soul. 

Death was introduced into humanity by the fall or disobedience 
of Adam, who is the great patriarch, and is he whom the 
Scripture calls Michael, The Ancient of Days, with hair like 
wool. But, in their technical phrase, Adam fell that men might 
be," and ate the apple under full knowledge of the consequences, 
and the " Fall " was a matter of previous arrangement in the 
economy of prohaiion. That is, he fell that man, or a mortal 
body, might be born of woman, and tabernacles fitted up urr 'l\e 
spirits, as fast as they chose to undertake their probations. And 
when a spirit does not answer its true intent in onn probation, but 
forfeits its inheritance by sin and evil conduct, then it will have a 



FAITH OF THE MORMONS. 



51 



lower one assigned it at death^ and if disobedient still, another, 
and anotliei-j until it shall be brought to the proper subjection, 
and, yielding to the gospel law, be allowed to retrace its course 
back in the successive stages to splendor and angelhood. _ 

Thus it is said of their chief Apostle, at present a president of 
a stake, and a distinguished writer in both politics and their 
theology^ that he fell into doubt as to the truth of the system, 
and contemplated apostacy. He was saved by the ministry of 
angels. A heavenly messenger appeared before him and warned 
him of the danger, and then pronounced upon him the doom of 
being soon obliged to take a negro tabernacle, unless he should 
repent and become zealous for the faith delivered to the Latter- 
Day Saints. This was effectual in frightening him back to duty, 
for they hold the " Negro is cursed as to the priesthood, and must 
always be a servant wherever his lot is cast, and therefore shall 
never attain to anything above a dim shining glor3^ This part 
of the human race is the lowest grade. A first descending 
probation would be that of the Indian — for the red men have 
been cursed only as to color and indolent habits; and through 
repentance and obedience, and acceptance of the newly proclaimed 
gospel, they can be restored to pristine rights and beauty, and 
become again "a fair and delightsome people,'^ worthy of their 
origin from the Jews of Palestine. When these grades have 
not been effectual in subduing the rebellious spirit, a third one 
would be assigned into the brute species, and a choice taken among 
them; and when we are tormented by a refractory li-^r.-e or 
obstinate ass, it may not be amiss to reflect that they are actuatod 
by an apostate soul, and exemplifying a few of the " human 
infirmities/' However, it is not our purpose here to draw 
inferences or reconcile any contradictions which may appear in 
the Mormon teaching. 

Man, in the usual acceptation, is a compound being, with a 
physical, intellectual, and spiritual nature — but in the view taken 
above, he is a duality of elements. The intellectual is absorbed 
.nto either of the others, according to convenience, though usually 
confounded with the spiritual ; and the chain of reasoning termi- 
nates in exalting the physical nature above the other two. 



CHAPTER V. 



SAME SUBJECT— MASONRY— HIEROGLYPHICS. 

Of the introduction of sin, and rise and progress of Satan, we 
have heard this account given and " proved by their scriptures/' 

After Adam had fallen from his first estate, a council was held 
in Heaven, and all the members were present. Among them was 
He who is emphatically called The Son, and likewise Lucifer, the 
elder brother, the Son of the Morning, the bright star in glory, 
and leader of heavenly hosts. The proposition was laid before 
the council how man should be saved or redeemed from the state 
of evir' — and each one called upon to give his method of salva- 
tion. "When Lucifer was appealed to, he declared that ^^he would 
save him in his sins^^ — but Christ answered, "I will save him 
from his sins. 

The latter was deemed the true way by the Father, and 
accepted; whereupon the Son of the Morning took ofience and 
rebelled, with the legions he managed to corrupt, and was there- 
fore cast out of the planetary abode of the Father, and became 
the great leader of evil spirits, under the name of Satan — but he 
brought with him many of the noble qualities he ever possessed ; 
is still Milton's '^Archangel ruined and a perfect gentleman/' 

All the meaner temptations and evil arts are practised only by 
the baser sort of imps, hence some people are very uncharitable in 
charging all blame upon the head devil,'' as they often call him. 

The idea they entertain of the personal agency of this ^^fino 
gentleman," may be gathered from the anecdotes rife among them 
of his doings with Sidney Rigdon, who, from being the next in 
rank to the prophet Joseph, apostatised, through the love of good 
cheer, and ambition to be bead. He had received a great many 
visits from his angel, as he supposed, and many revelations — but 



FAITH or THE MORMONS. 



53 



one mght while asleep, he was aroused by so mighty a shake, that 
he was made aware that no ordinary hand was upon him. Indeed, 
his Satanic majesty was fully confessed, for he proceeded to tilt up 
the bed and handle Sidney most roughly ; and then, taking him 
by the legs, trundled him down the stairs as one -would drag a 
wheelbarrow behind him, without mercy upon the grey head as it 
thumped every step; and, finally, landing the sufferer in the street, 
disappeared like smoJce.'^ This treatment was repeated several 
times, but 'twere of no use to suggest that some human agency, 
in the shape of a lusty Mormon, had a hand in the work — for 
they took the precaution to inquire the color of the hair, the cast 
of countenance, and other unmistakcable marks, by which Joseph 
had taught them to detect the real Beelzebub, whenever he 
appeared as an angel of light, or in propria persona. 

TONGUES. 

This is not the ancient gift, whereby one addressing a people 
speaking a different language from himself, was enabled to talk in 
their own words. It is, that persons among themselves, in their 
enthusiastic meetings, shall be moved by the spirit'^ to utter any 
set of sounds in imitation of words, and, it may be, words belong- 
ing to some Indian or other language. The speaker is to know 
nothing of the ideas expressed, but another, with the ^^gift of 
interpretation of tongues,' ' can explain to the astonished audience 
all that has been said. Any sounds, of course then are a language 
known to the Lord. If one feels a desire to speak, and has 
diflBculty to bring forth the thoughts of his heart, or what the 
spirit is about to reveal through him, he must " rise on his feet, 
lean in faith on Christ, and open his lips, utter a song in such 
cadence as he chooses, and the spirit of the Lord will give an 
interpreter, and make it a language.'' 

THE RESURRECTION. 

Their peculiar notions of this cannot be appreciated without 
knowing their views of the Restoration, or restitution of all things 
5* 



54 



FAITH OF THE MORMONS. 



spoken of by Isaiah. When God created the living earthy ho 
gave the command that the waters gather to one places and the 
dry land appear ] and hence it is inferred that ^' there was one 
vast ocean, rolling around one immense body of land, unbroken 
as to continents and islands ] it was one beautiful plain, inter- 
gpersed with gently rising hills and sloping vales; its climate 
delightfully varied with heat and cold, wet and dry, crowning the 
year with productions grateful to men and animals; while from 
the flowery plain or spicy grove sweet odors were wafted on every 
breeze, and all the vast creation of animated being breathed 
naught but health, peace, and joy/^* Over this creation, residing 
in a well-watered and delicious garden, Man reigned, and talked 
face to face with the Supreme, with only a dimming veil between.'' 

But Adam fell, and the earth partook of the curse that 
followed, and in pain and sorrow sympathised with the disobedient 
pair, under its load of thorns and thistles — and sin accumulated 
its guilty deeds in the actions of men, until the Lord comes out 
in vengeance and cleanses all by water. x\fter the Noachian 
deluge, in the days of Peleg, the earth was divided.'' Not among 
families was the surface distributed — but a mighty revolution that 
brought the sea from its place in the north, to interpose between 
portions of the land rent asunder; and earthquakes and commo- 
tions have since separated it into islands and fragments. 

The American continent, as the Book of Mormon informs, was 
shaken to its foundation at the time of the crucifixion; and 
cities, towns, mountains, and lakes, buried and formed when ^Hhe 
earth writhed in the convulsive throes of agonizing nature." 

Men have degenerated since then as well as the earth; — the 
ancients were worthy to converse with the Lord and angels, and 
lessons given to enlarge the heart and expand the soul to its ut- 
most capacity "—far above the smattering of the present worldly 
wisdom. 

But the restoration of all things is at hand; for ^Hie shall send 
Jesus Christ, whom the heavens must receive, until the times of 



* Voice of Warning. 



TATTH OF THE MORMONS. 



55 



rv3stitution of all things ^' — and ^* the voice of one crying in the 
wilderness — Every valley shall be exalted and every hill be made 
low, — and mighty revolutions shall begin to restore the face of 
the earth to its former beauty/^ (See Voice of Warning.) 

In Rev. vi. we find, "every island and mountain were moved 
out of their places ; in Isaiah, that "the earth shall move out 
of her place and be like a chased roe — but after that, "thou 
shalt no more be termed forsaken, neither shalt thy land any 
more be termed desolate ; but thou shalt be called Hepzibah, 
and thy land Beulah 3 for the Lord delighteth in thee and thy land 
shall be married. And from the whole and varied scriptures, we 
learn that the continents and islands shall be united in one, as 
they were in the morn of creation, and the sea shall retire and 
assemble in its own place as before ; and all these scenes shall take 
place, about the time of the coming of the Lord/' The earth 
restored, and the inhabitants purified, both man "and beast, so that 
they hurt not, nor destroy — and the knowledge of the Lord cover- 
ing the earth, as the waters the sea,^' then comes the first resurrec- 
tion of the body, to reign on this delightful paradise with the 
Savior a thousand years. 

The peculiarity of this resurrection consists in this * the body 
is the same as before, " except, the hlood.^^ That will be left out. 
The Apostle Pratt (from whom we have been quoting,) says that 
Jesus was the exact pattern of our resurrection. "And Jesus 
Christ came forth triumphant from the mansions of the dead, pos- 
sessing the same body which had been born of a woman, which 
was crucified; but no blood flowed in his veins; for blood was the 
natural life in which were the principles of mortality; and a man 
restored to flesh and blood would be mortal, which was not the 
case with our Savior : and he was substantial, for he told his 
disciples to handle him, and know that he had ^'fiesh and bones 
which will be the constitution of all resurrected bodies. 

All the seed of Israel are to be raised from the dead, and 
brought to the land of Judea ; the saints of other peoples, g.\ther- 
ed to the fair American division ; and the Zion by one, and New 



56 



FAITH OF THE MORMONS. 



Jerusalem by the other saints, will be built with fine stones, and 
the beauty of all precious things. 

One more change only^ will be necessary to fit the earth for 
man's eternal inheritance, which will take place at the end of the 
thousand yearS;, the great Sabbath of rest and enjoyment. The 
earth will be celestialized through the baptism of fire — the two 
cities will be caught up, literally, into heaven, to descend with the 
Lord Grod for its light and its temple, and remain for ever on the 
*^ new earth '' under the bright canopy of the new heavens/' 

PROPHECIES AND PROPHETIC TIMES. 

There is something ingenious, as well as fanciful, in the method 
of determining prophetic time. For want of the true key, the 
commentators have hitherto failed in their interpretations of days 
and years, and the time for the fulfilment of foretold events. 

Now God, our Father, dwells on his planet (Kolob) and mea- 
sures time b}^ its revolutions; one of those revolutions begins and 
terminates a day, which is equal to one thousand of our years; 
the authority for which will readily occur to any Sabbath-school 
scholar or scripture reader. 

Being finite, he employs agents to bring and communicate infor- 
mation through his worlds; and all the material agents of light, 
electricity, and sound, or attributes, are employed in this thing. 
When an angel is commissioned a messenger to earth, he is taken 
from the chief planet perhaps, or quite as likely, from some other 
that circles around it. But an angel in speaking of the time of 
events, would of course speak of the days and years, or weeks, 
that are measured by the revolution of his own abode. 

These angels are sent to the Seer to communicate what pertains 
to the interest or the government of the church, or the orders for 
individuals to act under the direction of the Seer, as missionaries 
or otherwise. These communications are registered, to be pro- 
mulgated at the proper moment, according as the members can 
bear them, for many would be offended and turn back '' if the 
whole truth was "dashed down in a mass before them.'' 



FAITH OF THE MORMONS. 



57 



Individuals receive revelations regarding their own matters, on 
proper subjects; these are to be obtained by prayer in mighty 
faith," but only when natural sagacity, improved by diligence and 
study, would fail to suggest the desired information, or point out 
the required course of action ; — where God has appointed means, 
he will not work by miracles. 

At baptism the true believer may ask in faith for some 
particular "spirit," as, for instance, the spirit whereby one can 
perceive between true and false doctrines; and intuitively divine 
it when propounded by those who have the authority to speak, 
yet may have become darkened through unbelief or evil practice, 
or brought to them by "the false and seducing spirits," which are 
to abound in the last days, and such a spirit will be given them to 
guide and direct. 

These attendant angels, however, cannot prevent the approach 
and insinuations of evil spirits, and thus the two kinds are on the 
right hand and on the left — which accounts for the crooked paths 
some pretty good men among them often mark out. 

PRIESTHOOD. 

It is stoutly maintained that the priesthood is necessary to the 
being, as well as the perfection of a church ; and so long as the 
Aaronic branch is not exercised by the tribe of Levi through 
unbelief, their Melchisedek order being the greater, have the right 
to oflSciate in the lesser offices, and will do so when the proper 
temple is built ; that is, in the animal sacrifices for daily sins of 
the people. The priestly order receives tithes of all one possesses 
on entering the church; and the members pay a tenth of all 
income, and devote a tenth part of their time to the temple and 
other public works, ever after. 

The bishops have charge of the tithe labor, and receive the 
contributions (or a commutation for labor and produce,) and put 
the proceeds of industry in the public store-houses ; in fine, this 
order of priests have charge of the temporal matters under the 
direction of the Presidency. 



58 ORDERS OF PRIESTS. 

The Hierarchy of the Mormon Church has many grades of 
offices and gifts. The first is the Presidency of three persons, 
which, we vrere led to understand, answered or corresponded to 
the Trinity in Hearen, but more particularly to Peter, James, and 
John, the first presidents of the gospel church. 

Next in order is the travelling High x\postolic College of twelve 
apostles, after the primitive church model, who have the right to 
preside over the stakes in any foreign country, according to 
seniority; then the high-priests — priests, elders, bishops, teachers, 
and deacons — together with evangelists or missionaries of the 
" three seventies/^ Each order constitutes a full quorum for the 
discipline of its members, and transacting business belonging to 
its action ; but appeals lie to higher orders, and the whole church 
is the final appellate court assembled in general council. 

Their Prophets arise out of every grade, and a Patriarch 
resides at head quarters to bless particular members, after the 
manner of Jacob and his sons, and that of Israel towards Esau 
and his brother. 

A High Council is selected out of the high-priests, and consists 
of twelve members, which is in perpetual session to advise the 
Presidency; in which each is free to give and argue his opinion. 
The President sums up the matter and gives the decision, perhaps 
in opposition to a great majority, but to which all must yield 
implicit obedience; and probably there has never been known, 
under the present head, a dissent when the awful nod" has been 
given, for it is the "stamp of fate and sanction of a god.'' 

This council is eye, ear, and hand to the President — the 
members are the spies over all matters in the field or the temple, 
in the social party or the domestic circle. Is any novel opinion 
broached in conversation, it is brought before the council by any 
member cognizant of, or who has heard of it, and measures are 
taken to ferret it out, that the man who uttered it, if he is not 
sound to the core, may be marked and pounced upon before he is 
even aware that he is suspected. No wonder that many among 
them, who are not well advised of the means of acquiring the 
knowledge, wonder that Brigham is so well "posted up'^ in what 



PRIESTHOOD AND MASONRY. 



59 



relates to the private history of the numerous persons around 
him. 

In the early arrangement of the affairs of the Mormon church, 
and when they were accused of raising up a society and people to 
be governed independent of the state — there was inserted in the 
Book of Covenants, the following item of belief : " We do not 
believe it just to mingle religious influence with civil government, 
whereby one religious society is fostered, and another proscribed 
in its spiritual privileges, and the individual rights of its members, 
as citizens, denied/' 

Yet it is taught that the priesthood is supreme in the state — 
not in the sense that all human law springs from the standard of 
right and wrong contained in the revealed word of God, but that 
this order has the control of the state, and ought to make the civil 
regulations, because it receives revelations from day to day, and 
can therefore keep both the temporal and spiritual from clashing, 
and fulfil the scripture that ^'the officers shall be peace and 
exactors righteousness/' And in the selection of officers by 
ballot, the elective franchise is made subservient to a vot^ for the 
nominee of the Presidency. 

It was related to us in conversation that a delegate was chosen 
and commissioned for Congress, at a time when it was desirable 
that he should start suddenly for the seat of government; and 
that the people were summoned to vote when he was far on the 
way to the states — his credentials either in his pocket, or sent to 
him by mail afterward. 

They gloried in this conge d^elire, and it was averred by promi- 
nent men that to vote against any one proposed by the highest 
authority would be the height of folly. For the council knew 
what was wanted to be done, and of course what persons were the 
most suitable to accomplish the work. 

But to return to the subject of the priesthood ; we are informed 
they have working signs, and that Masonry was originally of the 
church, and one of its fiivored institutions, to advance the members 
in their spiritual functions. It had become perverted from its 
1 designs, and was restored to its true work by Joseph, who gave 



60 



FAITH OF THE MORMONS. 



again, by angelic assistancCj the key-words of the several degrees 
that had been lost ; and when he entered the lodges of Illinois, he 
could work right ahead of the most promoted; for which, through 
envy, the Nauvoo lodge was excommunicated, or cut off by the 
Grand Lodge, on account of its own ignorance of the greatest 
truths and benefits of Masonry. 

The priesthood having the different degrees, preferment in them 
depends on the faithfulness of the aspirant, as judged by those 
already promoted, and one of the merits is the paying up of all 
tithe dues. Any one in arrears on this, will find himself blocked 
materially when the proper buildings for working'^ are con- 
structed. Diligence and obedience are thus held out as things to 
ensure a reward in knowledge and promotions. 

Until the great temple is built, much has to be left undone — 
that structure has to be arranged with regard to this and other 
institutions of the priestly orders; and the wants of the church 
at the time will determine the manner, which will be given by 
direct revelation. 

There will be bathing apartments distinct for the priests and 
priestesses, for the women are to have a part of this office, and are 
admitted to certain degrees in Masonry as a consequence. Par- 
ticular ablutions are to be attended to, before appearing to officiate 
at the altars, and many observances in the manner of offering 
worship and praise, and performing symbolical rites, will have the 
conveniences fitted up for them and diligently kept in practice. 

And we may close this notice of ''peculiar doctrines^* and 
special teachings, by a reference to their assertions, that revelations 
of God^s will in His moral teachings, have been made at various 
times to all nations ; and, through tradition, the truth has been 
transmitted down, so that there is no people, even the heathen, 
who have not some correct doctrines and moral notions. Therefore 
we are not to be surprised to find that they have points in common 
with every belief under heaven, for being guided by the spirit into 
all truth, they have sifted it out from the mass of error that 
obscures it ; and whatever has been vouchsafed to man, may be 
considered in their possession. 



FAITH -yy THE MORMONS. 



61 



On this account they claim an advantage over all proselytes of 
other creeds, in being able to commence with what is agreeable to 
both parties, and then extend gradually the teaching upon other 
matters, from the least objectionable topics up to those fully 
opposed to previous ideas and habits. Thus, with the Eastern 
nations and South Sea Islanders, they are not called upon to 
renounce all but one partner; the animal sacrificer will be toll 
he can retain that practice, and so on to the end of the chapter. 

SOURCES OF DOCTRINES. 

The ecclesiastical student will not fail to remark that Mormon- 
ism is an eclectic religious philosophy, drawn from Brahmin 
mysticism in the dependence of Grod, the Platonic and G-nostic 
notion of Eons, or a moving principle in element; Mahomedan 
sensualism, and the fanaticism of the sects of the early church 
and there is the good and evil of Ahrimaism, with the convenient 
idea of the transmigration of souls, from the Persian. 

Nor has its founder altogether confined his attention to the 
ancient Christian theories or pagan superstitions; and his followers 
have fallen in with the spiritual philosophy of the day, and added 
the doctrine of affinities of mmds and the sympathy of souls — he 
has told us that the spirits of the departed dead are angels that 
return and converse with those who are congenial to them, or they 
have the privilege, on account of their purity, to receive commu- 
nications from ghostly realms — and, taking the antithesis of the 
dicta, that God is perfect man, he makes every perfect man a god 
— and by tracing the parallel at our leisure, we may discover that 
the speculations of modern times have here been more or less 
modified and adopted, those reveries of ingenious but morbid 
imaginations, given to the speculative world in mellifluous lan- 
guage, and sensuous, captivating descriptions of enjoyments in the 
i existence that succeeds to this, of, too frequently, self-made misery. 
I Between the school of mental delighl, and the school of the 
\ Mormon, there is this difference; the latter acts now upon his 
j theories, and materializes them to present use, while the former 
' 6 



FAITH OF THE MORMONS. 



revels alone in intellectual sensuality, putting off to the future the 
feast of the palate, the charms for the eye, or absorption in the 
delights of affianced love — we leave both to reconcile the differ- [1 
ences between themselves and the school of moral obedience and ' 
true revelation. By sensuality used in this connection, we mean 
that application of the senses in a lawful manner for procuring 
desiderated enjoyment, which education and conscience allows to j 
those of any adopted creed. j 

In Mormonism we recognise an intuition of Transcendentalism li 
-intuitive, we say, for its founder was no scholar in the idealistic , 
philosophy. He trampled under foot creeds and formulas, and i 
soared away for perpetual inspiration from the good ; and by the 
will, which he calls faith, he won the realms of truth, beauty, \ 
and happiness. Such things can only be safely confided to the - 
strong and pure-minded, and even they must isolate themselves in J 
self-idolatry, and be alone with the alone/' and seek converse | 
with the spirit of man's spirit. j 

But this prophet was educated by passion, and sought to be I 
social with the weak ; he therefore baptized spirituality in the 
waters of materialism. Instead of evolving the godlike nature 
of the human spirit, he endeavored to prove that humanity was 
already divinity, by investing Deity with what is manlike. Men 
were to be like gods by making gods men. 

Various coincidences have occurred, which strikingly keep alive | 
in the mountain brethren their idea of being the chosen of the 
Lord — and confirm them in the belief of the inspiration of the 
Book of Mormon. Among other things are the marks and 
hieroglyphical characters found engraved on the precipitous cliffs 
of southern Utah, which are faintly imitated by the present 
Indians. Those who were associated with Joseph as amanuenses 
pretend to have acquired sufficient knowledge of similar things ; 
to be enabled to decipher their signification, and have translated 
enough to confirm, in the most wonderful manner, the Nephite 
records. 

The following is a specimen taken from the cliff in Sam Pete 
valley, at the city of Manti. 



ii 



HIEROGLYPHICS. 



63 




Translation by one of the Regents; I Malianti, the 2nd King 
of the Lamanites, in five valleys in the mountains, make this record 
in the 12 hundredth year since we came out of Jerusalem — And 
I have three sons gone to the South country to live by hunting 
antelope and deer/' 

Another specimen is taken from those in little Salt Lake Val- 
ley : they are reduced from three feet figures, preserving propor- 
tions. 




CHAPTER VI. 



SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE MORMONJ. 

It may be reasonably expected that we should make some 
reference to the practical workings of this stupendous and com- 
plicated system on the present theatre of its application, in regard 
to their dealings with strangers and the state of morals among 
themselves. 

During the sojourn of the party sent by the government to sur- 
vey the region around the Great Lake, and ascertain its commercial 
and agricultural capabilities, the greatest kindness was shown to 
the members individually, and facilities given to prosecute the 
work. This was done, however, after it was ascertained that the 
advantages of the exploration would accrue to themselves, and 
that it was not for the purpose of seizing their lands, to bring 
them into market — the "let severely alone policy was to have 
been adopted, if the character of the work had been to annoy 
them, which would have effectually paralyzed the operations. 

A report that military men were coming to superintend a sur- 
vey of their lands for the market, and interfere with their occu- 
pancy, had preceded the party. This occasioned it to be received 
with coldness, and among the more ignorant the prejudice was 
scarcely removed for the whole year. So that any interference 
with the triangulation stations, which was seldom, or any evasive 
answers to questions, were to be set down to ignorance more than 
to malice, and it is probable such a work could not have been con- 
ducted any where else with so little annoyance. 

A large branch of the great emigration overland to California 
passed through the Mormon settlements, which is the best route 
across the country. 

(64) 



MORMON DEALING WITH EMIGRANTS. 



65 



Of fche parties organized in the States to cross the plains, there 
-^as hardly one that did not break into several fragments, and the 
division of property caused a great deal of difficulty. Many of 
these litigants applied to the courts of Deseret for redress of griev- 
ances, and there was every appearance of impartiality and strict 
justice done to all parties. Of course, there would be dissatisfac- 
tion when the right was declared to belong to one side alone ; and 
the losers circulated letters far and near, of the oppression of 
the Mormons. These would sometimes rebel against the equity 
decisions, and then they were made to feel the full majesty of the 
civil power. For contempt of court they were most severely fined,| 
and in the end found it a losing game to indulge in vituperation 
of the court, or make remarks derogatory to the high functionaries!^ 

Again, the fields in the valley are imperfectly fenced, and the 
emigrants' cattle often trespassed upon the crops. For this, a good 
remuneration was demanded, and the value being so enormously 
greater than in the States, it looked to the stranger as an imposition 
and injustice to ask so large a price. A protest would usually be 
made, the case then taken before the bishop, and the costs be 
added to the original demand. Such as these, were the instances 
of terrible oppression, that have been industriously circulated as 
unjust acts of heartless Mormons^ upon the gold emigration. 

But provisions were sold at very reasonable prices, and their 
many deeds of charity to the sick and broken-down gold-seekers, 
all speak loudly in their favor, and must eventually redound to 
their praise. Such kindness, and apparently brotherly good-will 
among themselves, had its effect in converting more than one to 
their faith, and the proselytes deserted the search for golden ore, 
supposing they found there pearls of greater price. 

Could the history of the overland emigrants, for the first two 
seasons after it commenced, be obtained and written, it would 
give us a volume of surpassing interest. Men thrown together 
and dependent on each other, would feel that very necessity of 
harmony an intolerable burthen, and selfishness, heartless and 
cruel, was developed to a frightful extent. There were instances 
6* 



66 



CHARACTER OF THE MORMONS. 



of nobleness and good feeling, but the great mass of testimony? 
goes to show much of the contrary. 

There were many curious exercises of the feelings, and novel 
ways of proceeding. One sturdy German had well-nigh immor- 
talized himself under the name of the ^'wheelbarrow man.'' His 
all was thus packed, and he trundled his wheelbarrow along as 
rapidly as the teams advanced, and had the prospect of reaching 
the end of his two thousand miles in safety. But alas ! for the 
chances of human ambition — the Weber Eiver in the mountains 
was swollen by the melting snows, and he was forced to cross on 
the raft with teams — the raft foundered in the swift current, and 
the wheelbarrow, with ^'his all,'' was swept down into the boiling 
kanyon below, and lost beyond redemption. 

Resuming our theme, we may say that there were acts of 
individual churlishness, shown in the mountains, that call for 
reprobation, but the}- should not be charged upon the community* 
and, still more, it should not be thought that such actions were 
sanctioned by the chiefs of the people. 

The homogeneousness of this sect consists in their obedience to 
counsel; but as the great majority is of course made up, like 
other communities, of all sorts of dispositions, they vary in habits 
and thinking according to individual character. 

Thus they allow that mistakes have been made by individuals 
in carrying out their doctrines ; for instance, many have supposed 
that the time was come when they should take possession of the 
property of the Grentiles, and that it would be no theft to secure 
cattle and grain from neighboring pastures and fields, thus 
>^ spoiling the Ep^yptians," and we are told by themselves that 
such conduct hvA to be forbidden from the public desk. This 
instance of wrong application of the dogma that they are "the 
stewards of the Lord, and the inheritance of the earth belongs to 
the saints," shows that some foundation exists for the charges 
against them,|on the score of insecurity of property in Illinois aiid 
Missouri — and that abuses can easily arise from their principles, 
when residing near people of other religious views. 

There is a casuistic view taken of the right to make a distino 



POLYGAMY AMONG THE MORMONS. 



67 



tion between what is publicly proclaimed by the Seer, or under his 
api)robation from the desk, and what may be called floating 
opinion, and practice also, arising from his private promulgations 
to certain members. On this they say that it is proper to deny 
certain things to exist as doctrine j which may be quite universally 
held and acted upon among them, because it has not been publicly 
proclaimed — and also to deny any thing offensive to the Christian 
world at large, especially when the affirmative would do others no 
good, and themselves harm; from which has arisen the opinion that 
they preach one thing abroad, and practise quite differently at home. 

For to the initiated only is it given to know the mysteries of 
the kingdom,^' and they hesitate not to rebuke the impertinent 
curiosity of the Mormonish at home, and the tares among the 
wheat — and meet the outsiders with a flat denial of what, to a 
*true believer, would be readily admitted as correct. It is to them 
the pleading of guilty or not guilty of a court of justice. 

Their casuistry makes this perfectly proper to their own minds, = 
and it often turns on the meaning of certain words which convey 
a peculiar sense to each party. This can be made more plain by 
reference to the subject of plurality of wives.^' 

POLYGAMY. 

It has been constantly denied that it is a doctrine of theirs to 
have spiritual wives. 

An intelligent lady informed me that she had considered it 
right, when asked by her friends, while on an eastern visit, to say 
that ^' it is no doctrine of ours to have spiritual wives ; " and this, 
although the interrogators may have had in their minds nothing 
more than plurality and its supposed abuses. 

That many have a large number of wives in Deseret, is perfectly 
manifest to any one residing long among them, and, indeed, the 
1 subject begins to be more openly discussed than formerly, and it 
is announced that a treatise is in preparation, to prove by the 
scriptures the right of plurality by all Christians, if not to declare 
j| their cwn practice of the same. 



68 



POLYGAMY AMONG THE MORMONS. 



The revelation of Josepli on the subject of polygamy has 
probably never been printed, or publicly circulated. When he 
declared to the council the revelation, it was made known that he, 
like the saints of old, David, Solomon, and Jacob, and those He 
thought faithful, should be privileged to have as many wives as 
they could manage to take care of, to raise up a holy household 
for the service of the Lord. Immediately rumors were spread that 
the wives of many of the people were re-married to the leaders 
and high-priests, and subject to them, which they declared to be a 
slander; and maintain that the relation existing among them is 
a pure and holy one, and that their doctrine is, that every man shall 
have one wife, and every woman only one husband, as is laid down 
in the Book of Covenants by revelation. 

Yet they affirm that this allows to the man a plurality, as the 
phrase is peculiarly worded ; — the only applying to the female 
alone. They go so far as to say that our Savior had three wives, 
Mary and Martha and the other Mary whom Jesus loved, all mar- 
ried at the wedding in Cana of Galilee.* 

Again, they teach that the use and foundation of matrimony is to 
raise up a peculiar, holy people for the Kingdom of God the Son, 
that at the Millennium they may be resurrected to reign with 
him, and the glory of the man will be in proportion to the size 
of his household of children, wives, and servants, — but that those 

* Since writing the above, their teaching on this point is given by Or- 
son Hyde, chief of the Apostles, in the Guardian of Dec. 26th, 1851. 
*'If in Christ himself were fulfilled the words of Isaiah, 'He shall see 
his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall 
prosper in his hand,' the Christian world are not mistaken in their opin- 
ion. But how were they fulfilled ? If, at the marriage of Cana of Gal- 
ilee, Jesus was the bridegroom and took unto him Mary, Martha, and 
the other Mary whom Jesus loved, it shocks not our nerves. 

*' If there were not an attachment and familiarity between our Savior 
and these women highly improper, only in the relation of husband and 
wife, then we have no sense of propriety, or of the characteristics of 
good and refined society. Wisely then was it concealed ; but when 
the Savior poured out his soul unto death, when nailed to the cross, he 
•aw his seed of children, but who shaU declare his generation ? No one. 



POLYGAMY AMO]NG THE MORMONS. 



69 



eligible to the priesthood have only a right to marry at all.* It ia 
to be a pure and holy state ; and religious motives or a sense of 
duty, should alone guide ; and that for sensual gratifications it is 
an abomination. 

Infidelity and licentiousness are held up for abhorrence; and 
when the plurality law shall be promulgated^ they will be pun- 
ished by the decapitation of the offender and the severest chastity 
inculcated upon one sex, and rigid continence on the other during 
the gestation and nursing of children. Thus the time of wean- 
ing will again become a feast of joy, next to the celebration of the 
nuptial rite, and patriarchal times return. 

Quoting the Scripture that the man is not without the woman, 
nor the woman without the man,^' they affirm that it is the duty 
of every man to marry at least once, and that a woman cannot 
enter into the heavenly kingdoms without a husband to introduce 
her as belonging to himself. 

And it has been said that some women, distrusting the title of 
their spouses to enter at all, have been desirous to take hold of 
the skirt of an apostle or high-priest with superior credentials ; how 
far correct we are not sufficiently informed to state positively, and 
catf only speak of such rumors as existing, and beg pardon for 
mentioning the scandal. 

The addition of wives, after the first, to a man^s family, is called 
a "sealing to him.'' 

This constitutes a relation with all the rights and sanctions of 



if he had none to be declared. Notwithstanding this, which to many is 
a new and strange feature in Christianity, are we not disposed to mock 
at it, neither to regret salvation through the Virgin's son." 

* On the 24th July last, the orator said; ** Here let the sacred rights 
of matrimony, like the pure love of God * spread undivided and operate 
unspent,' until the children of Abraham become as numerous as the 
stars above, or the sands below, that from the resurrection, the joint 
heirs of Jesus Christ may do the works that their Father did, till each 
in the centre of his own glory may reign in his own Eternity a God." 

Let it be a sacred motto, — The woman that marries out of the priest- 
hood, marries for hell." 



70 



POLYGAMY AMONG THE MORMONS. 



matrimony; — and as they claim to have the only true priesthood, 
which alone can bind the parties in the holy state and make them 
^' one desh/' it follows that they have the only true marriages now 
existing upon earth. 

Thus guarded in the motive, and denounced as sin for other 
consideration than divine, the practical working of the system, so 
far as now extended, has every appearance of decorum. The 
romantic notion of a single love is derided, and met by calling 
attention to the case of parental affection ; where the father's good 
will is bestowed alike on each of his many children ; and they 
pretend to see a more rational application of a generous soul in 
loving more than one wife, than in the bigotry of a partial adhe- 
sion. The Seer alone has the power, which he can use by delega- 
tion, of granting the privilege of increasing the number of wives : 
the rule of primitive ages is applied in the case, and the suitor 
must first have the consent of the parents, then consult the lady, 
and the Seer. 

Every unmarried woman has a right to demand a man in mar- 
riage, if she is neglected, on the ground of the privilege of salva- 
tion; and the President who receives the petition must provide 
for her; and he has the authority to command any man he deems 
competent to support her, to seal her" to himself in marriage; 
and the man so ordered must show just cause and impediment why 
it should not be done, if he dislikes the union ; or else be consi- 
dered contumacious and in danger of the council." 

The Seer sometimes has to exercise his judgment in preventing 
incono;ruous sealinofs from unworthv motives, and to tell such that 
what they now esteem a privilege, will turn out soon to be a bur- 
den. 

This interference with the kingdom of Cupid calls for most ju- 
dicious measures on his part, for in that court his decisions, guided 
by Reason, are apt to be demurred to by Passion. But, as he 
can join, so too can he annul the contract, and dissolve the rela- 
tionship of the parties, when, after he has counselled them and 
given them a proper probation, they still find an incompatibility 
to exist. Out of this matter grows an immense power, based upon 



POLYGAMY AMONG THE MORMONS. 



71 



his knowledge of all the domestic relations in the colony ; — such 
delicate confidence begets a reverence and fear, and while things 
proceed harmoniously^ a love to him as their adviser and friend. 
And as the peace of the society depends materially on that of fam- 
ilies, he watches over this part of the prerogative with great solici- 
tudcj and keeps the parties, so far as practicable, up to their en- 
gagements. 

Tn some instances several wives occupy the same house and tho 
same room, as their dwellings have generally only one apartment, 
but it is usual to board out the extra ones, who most frequently 
" pay their own way/' by sewing, and other female employments. 
It is but fairness to add that they hold the time near at hand pre 
dieted by Isaiah, ^' when seven women shall take hold of the skirt 
of one man and say, We will eat our own bread, but let us be 
called by thy name : — which gives the assurance that plurality 
is foretold and correctly practised by them. 

It is only a little in anticipation of the time when the battles, 
of the Lord'^ are to begin, and then, as the women are far more 
pure than the men, the females will greatly outnumber the males, 
for the latter will be swept off by sword and pestilence, and the 
other reserved to increase the retinue of the saints ; and many 
women will thus be compelled to choose the same man, in order 
to secure a temporal home and temporal salvation, as also to obt-ain 
eternal right to a terrestrial or celestial queenship. 

It is further maintained that there is great disparity of numbers 
between the sexes, and that the predominance of the female is 
more than can be accounted for from war, the dangers of the sea 
and other perils, and therefore nature indicates the propriety of 
plurality, as ^-'marriage is honorable to all;'' but the decision of 
this question can safely be intrusted to the relative numbers of the 
sexes, as exhibited in our census returns. 

They also assure us that this system is the preventive and cure 
for the awful licentiousness — the moral and physical degradation 
in the world : and they make it botli a religious and a social cus- 
tom, a point of personal honour for a man whose wife, daughter, 
or sister has been led astray, to kill the seducer ; and considering 



72 



POLYGAMY AMONG THE MORMONS. 



fchis as "common mountain law/^ based on the Mosaic code, a 
jury will acquit the murderer at all hazards.* 

That the wives find the relation often a lonesome and burden- 
some one, is certain; though usually the surface of society wears 
a smili^ig countenance, and to all who consent from a sense of duty 
or enthusiasm the yoke is easy. 

The wife of the prophet Joseph rebelled against it, and declared 
if he persisted she would desert for another, but the only satisfao 
tion she received was "that a prophet must obey the Lord/' 
When such wives rebel, the proceedings are very summary, and 
public opinion sustains the cause against the woman. A very 
exemplary lady in the valley is looked upon as having broken her 
vows for deserting the "Sealed one'^ and marrying another, and 
therefore is not invited into social parties. 

An instance of summary proceeding came directly before us at 
Bear River. A Socialist emigrant from Monsieur Cabet's commu- 
nity at Nauvoo, passed the winter at Salt Lake City, and in the 
spring started on his journey to California. He had in his train 
a woman with a child about two years old, who had applied to him 
for transportation to the land of gold, and represented that the dig- 
nitary to whom she had been " sealed " had not visited or provided 
for her for three years ; and that a young man was betrothed 
to her who was in California, and if she could join him they 
should marry according to the laws of the land. The socialist's 
heart was touched, and he kindly offered her the means of proceed- 
ing, and they had come about one hundred miles when a posse 
overtook them, and demanded that the young woman should return 
to her legal or sealed husband. He consulted us whether to give 
up his charge — but the power precluded remonstrance, and the 
lady reluctantly retraced her steps. 

In the trial of Egan at Great Salt Lake City for killing, in cool blood 
the seducer of the wife, during the husband*s absence, it was declared that 
civil damages marked the rottenness of other governments, and that 
" The principle, the only one that beats and throbs through the heart of 
the entire inhabitants of this territory, is simply this ; The man who se^ 
dur.es his neighbour's wife^ must die, and her nearest relative must kill him.^* 



ADOPTION AMONG THE MORMONS. 



73 



Some other instances came under our notice, of like character, 
from which we must conclude that the regulation of the new plu- 
rality'* has not yet become perfect, and that the virtues claimed 
as pertaining to it are not in complete vigor; but we may add that 
the community had every appearance of good morals, so that any 
equal number of persons in the States can scarcely exhibit greater 
decorum. 

Another method of increasing the household and adding to the 
glory of the chiefs is by adoption. This consists in taking 
whole families and adopting them as part and parcel of the family 
of the chief, and arises out of the humility of the person so pro- 
posing to attach himself to the sacred character of some great dig- 
nitary of the church. There were pointed out to me, several who 
held this relationship to the Seers. The man is called, for in- 
stance, '^Son of Brigham by adoption,'' and lives with him, or 
near by, and acts for him as a child does for his parent, and re- 
ceives his subsistence, clothing, and living conjointly with the 
family. 

This patriarchal stewardship method increases the authority of 
the presidency, and is intended to extend into the other world after 
the resurrection. It certainly speaks well for the kindness on the 
side of the patriarch, and for the belief in his holiness, and of 
truth in his teachings, in the estimation of those who attach them- 
selves to the destinies of a fellow-man ; while, at the same time, 
it shows how fanaticism can overcome the strongest feeling of in- 
dependence. 

Much has been said of the Mormon profanity, in the pulpit and 
out of it. But what is considered profanity by the world, is not 
thus considered with them-^for they take their vain oaths without 
taking the name of the Supreme in connection with the words. 

They curse or condemn with man^s curses whenever they please, 
and such rough language sounds gratingly in refined ears, when it 
becomes usual in ordinary conversation — how they have learned 
to consider it innocent, we cannot imagine. 

The using of the name of God is allowed only on judicial 
occasions, when a curse is laid upon some indi\^dual, as that of 
7 



74 



COARSENESS OF LANGUAGE. 



Joseph Upon Governor Boggs, who had one fulminated against 
him, accompanied by the prophecy that he should become a 
vagabond afflicted with a scab, and be loathsome to himself and 
all his former friends, wishing for death, without dying, for a long 
time. 

When, therefore, we hear that their apostles and prophets have 
outraged decency in their temple language, let us bear in mind 
their education and instruction is to make a distinction between 
the most denunciatory words applied as expressions of dissent or 
emphasis, and taking the name of Jehovah in connection with the 
epithets, whereby they become blasphemy, and subject to severe 
civil penalty. 

Like other new sects, they have their peculiar phraseology and 
terms of technical signification, which is '^considered wisdom'^ in 
them ; and, without knowing their import, a grievous misconcep- 
tion might be made. 

Sometimes a ludicrous scene occurs in their meetings, arising 
from overwrought enthusiasm. One is related of a woman who 
sprang up and spoke ^'in tongues'' as follows — ^' Melai^ Meli, 
Melee,'' which was immediately translated into the vernacular by 
a waggish young man, who first observed that he felt '^the gift of 
interpretation of tongues'' sorely pressing upon him, and that she 
said in unknown words to herself, '^my leg, my thigh, my knee." 
For this he was called before the council ; but he stoutly persisted 
in his "interpretation" being by "the spirit," and they let him 
off with admonition. 

In social parties and lively meetings the Mormons are pre- 
eminent, and their hospitality would be more readily extended to 
strangers, had they suitable dwellings to invite them into. 

The adobe or sun-dried brick is now furnishing material, and 
the one-room log buildings are being replaced by spacious and 
commodious houses. 

In their social gatherings and evening parties, patronized by the 
presence of the prophets and apostles, it is not unusual to open 
the ball by prayer, asking the blessing of God upon their amuse- 
ments, as well as upon any other engagement — and then will 



VORMON PHRASEOLOGY. 75 

follow the most sprightly dancing, in which all join with hearty * 
good-will, from the highest dignitary to the humblest individual ; 
and this exercise is to become part of the temple worship, to 
praise God in songs and dances/' 

These private balls and soirees are frequently extended beyond 
the time of cock-crowing by the younger members, and the 
remains of the evening repast furnishes the breakfast for the 
jovial guests. 

The cheerful, happy faces — the self-satisfied countenances — the 
cordial salutation of brother or sister on all occasions of address 
— the lively strains of music pouring forth from merry hearts in 
every domicil, as women and children sing their ^' songs of Zion/' 
while plying the domestic tasks, give an impression of a happy 
society in the vales of Deseret. 

The influence of their nomenclature of brethren and sisters'' 
is apparent in their actions, and creates the bond of affection 
among those who are more frequently thrown together. It is 
impressed on infantile minds by the constant repetition, and 
induces the feeling of family relationship. A little boy was asked 
the usual question, whose son are you?'' and he very naively 
replied, "I am brother Pack's son;" a small circumstance truly, 
but one that stamps the true mark of the Mormon society. The 
welfare of the order becomes therefore paramount to individual 
interest; and the union of hearts causes the hands to unite in all 
that pertains to the glory of the State; and hence we see growing 
up and prospering, the most enterprising people of the age — 
combining the advantages of communism, placed on the basis of 
religious duty and obedience to what they call the law of the 
gospel — transcending the notion of socialistic philosophers, that 
human regulations can improve and perfect society, irrespective of 
the revealed word and will of God. 

Right or wrong, in the development of the principle and in itg 
application, they have seized upon the most permanent element of 
the human mind in its social relations — not yielding fully to the 
doctrines of earnestness and universal intention, making man hia 
own regenerator, as the fountain-head of truth, and nassing thence 



76 



WIDOWS ANT) WIDOWERS. 



into mysticism, pantheism, and atheism : neither endeavoring to 
cure the ills of society by political notions of trade and commerce, 
or by educating in the sentiment of honor^ and by poetical incul- 
cation of high thoughts and noble images, independent of being 
*^born of the water and the spirit/' We may use the words of 
one of their learned and most sincere men, to exhibit their view 
of obtaining the aggregate result of single efforts, which are these : 
Our polity, I think, may be summed up in these few words — 
each person to operate at what and where he can do the best, and 
with all his might; being subject to the counsel of those above 
him." 

To take that counsel is sometimes a bitter pill, and hundreds 
disobeyed it, and left sober earnings at home for the prospect of 
fortunes in the gold mines of California. The President and 
Council opposed emigration, though receiving abundance from the 
tithes by their superintendent there; and often declared that it 
would be a great calamity to discover mines in their own regions ; 
for people would desert their farms and preparations for comfort- 
able dwellings, for unsatisfying dross. Counsel on matrimonial 

matters is better obeyed. Bishop J was adding an apartment 

to a commodious house, and, having a small family, it caused a 
remark or question, why he thus extended his domicil. *^ Ah 
was the ready reply, *^did you not know that he is obliged to take 
his brother^s widow to wife, and the proper time is nearly arrived?" 
We remembered the case of the wife of seven brothers; and 
moreover, being only an humble layman, presumed not further to 
Interrogate the acts of a bishop of that Melchisedek priesthood. 

The subject of widows and widowers introduces some nice 
questions of rank and precedence in the future patriarchal courts. 
A lady of superior abilities and great enthusiasm, sealed later than 
the first wife, whose modest talents are thereby cast into the shade, 
may aspire to the place of first queen, to be : and thus an 
affectionate rivalry can be raised, of which the expectant king 
reaps the sole benefit. The widow of several husbands must have 
doubts to which she shall owe her elevation, unless she fortunately 
loved one supremely — and the wife finds a rival in the brothei'^s 



CURIOSITY OF A LADY. 



77 



widow, from the tie of consanguinity. The troubles of the high 
Chieftain are said to arise from still another cause. 

He had a wife dearly beloved before becoming a Mormon, who 
died out of his church; but she can be saved by substituted 
baptism, and his next partner has become exceedingly anxious to 
know whether her predecessor will be resurrected to be the chief 
of the queens, or if that important station is reserved for herself, 
who has partaken of so "much tribulation.^^ Why the question 
is not categorically answered we cannot opine — but, if women ever 
do teaze, we may suppose such a subject likely to call out all 
their resources to gratify curiosity. 



CHAPTER VIL 



THE PRIESTHOOD, SCHOOLS, ETC. 

The powers of the priesthood are thus stated in tie Gruardian; 
the ^^gift of faith, discerning of spirits, prophecy, revelation, 
visions, healing, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues, 
wisdom, charity, brotherly love/' Pre-eminent in all these is the 
head man of the priestly order; supposed to be, and looked up to 
as, the Lord^s peculiar prophet, with ability to read the hearts of 
men, his spiritual authority is complete ; and having so large a 
share of the wealth of the people at his command, and their entire 
will submissive to his behests, the President of the Latter-Day 
Saints is tb'^ most autocratic ruler in the world, f it his great 
authority has thus far been made subservient to the public 
interests, and his attention never diverted from alleviating indi- 
vidual distress — therefore it is no wonder that his sanctity is 
believed above reproach, and his least wish abjectly complied 
with by almost all over whom he presides with unlimited sway. 

Yet it is more the office than the man that carries such a prestige 
of command with those intimately connected with the source of 
power, or with the mass at a distance — there is not the usual man- 
worship found in the admirers of splendid abilities and achieve- 
ments of the founders of religious sects. The people are mostly 
composed of those converted in foreign lands, whose necks have j 
been bent to force, instead of yielding obedience by choice ; and 
their present condition is one of greater freedom and elevation of 
character than while groaning under civil despotism. Taught to 
regard themselves as the chosen of the Lord, soon to act on a 
theatre of renowft and glory, with angels and saints to look on, 
and cheer them with celestial applause for noble deeds, thejf 
«he^rfully await the signal of heaven to march under its banner; 

(78) 

i 



ADHERENCE TO FIRST PRINCIPLES. 



and they lend their means to bring up to their rendezvous all who 
will fraternize with them, and listen to the voice of their shepherd, 
wherever wandering in the wastes of the moral world, and so soon 
as its tones are heard, gladly turn to the green pastures of truth 
in the mountains, and come out to strengthen the cords of the 
Stake of Zion/^ 

A cardinal point being an unshaken belief in the inspiration of 
Joseph the Seer, and that the prophetic mantle has fallen on his 
successor Brigham, the new church Elijah and Elisha; any 
reflections derogatory to the character of either, based on suspicion, 
innuendo, or hearsay, is an insult of the darkest dye to them. 
But this adoration is not universal ; nor must we look upon all as 
ignorant and blindfolded, guided along the ditch of enthusiasm by 
self-deluded leaders. Indeed, almost every man is a priest, or 
eligible to the office, and ready armed for the controversial warfare; 
his creed is his idol ; and while among the best prosely ters we class 
many that are least versed in literary attainments, still, among 
them we find liberally educated men, and those who have been 
ministers in other denominations — in fact there seems to be as 
fair a sample of intelligence, moral probity, and good citizenship, 
as can be found in any nominal Christian community. 

Sincerity and simplicity of purpose mark the masses, which 
virtues have been amply proved by the sacrifices and sufferings 
endured. And among that people, so submissive to counsel, are 
those who watch with eagle eye that first principles are adhered to, 
and stand ready to proclaim apostacy in chief or in layman ; and 
scrutinizing all revelations to discover whether they are from the 
Lord, or given through his permission by Satan, to test the fidelity 
and watchfulness of the disciples of truth. 

It was in conformity with this watchful and scrutinizing spirit 
on the part of those determined to adhere strictly to first princi- 
ples, that the volumes presented by Gladden Bishop, the revelations 
of Rigdon and others, were pronounced to have a demon character; 
and the pretensions of William Smith and J. J. Strang, the 
Beaver Island " King/' declared to be spurious, and they, wHb 
their followers, were solemnly excommunicated. 



80 



ARRANGEMENTS FOR EDUCATION. 



EDUCATION. 

In Utah or Deseret, the arrangements for the cause of education 
are upon an extensive scale. 

Hitherto all exertion has necessarily been bestowed on obtaining 
the means of living; to fence fields, build houses, and tend their 
crops and herds. But as soon as this pressure slackened, we find 
them appropriating liberally for a university, which shall be 
eminently practical in its character, and designed to teach the 
useful branches thoroughly, first, to all, and allow those who have 
the leisure and the means, to acquire the ornamental afterwards. 

The selected grounds for the university buildings are beautifully 
located on the fii'st broad ten^ace, in the north part of the temple 
city, and overlook the dwellings of the town. City Creek has 
excavated a deep channel through this table-land, as it bursts out 
from the mountains, and its waters are to be taken at the requisite 
elevation in the hills, and conducted to the college plat, and made 
to beautify the scenery in jets, and water the groves, walks, and 
botanical gardens ; and a part used for health, in extensive bath 
and swimming houses. 

A large square is to be allotted and fitted to athletic and eques- 
trian exercises; an observatory for practical astronomy, aud the 
instruments already collected are to be freely used to iu struct on 
the ground, in the several departments of engineering, mechanics, 
and surveying — the agricultural department liberally patronised ; 
and the living, spoken languages of all peoples thoroughly taught 
to the proper students. 

A peculiar feature in their instruction is the introduction of 
a Parent's school for the heads of families ; and, at the time of 
the organization, the President is said to have avowed his inten- 
tion of attending it as a scholar, which is gladly mentioned as a 
thing redounding to his praise, and showing his strength of 
character; as also calculated to show others of his people that the 
time for acquiring knowledge is during the whole life of man. ' It 
IS too often that the school-room is deserted in early life, or the 
idea acted upon, that, if our youthful days have not acquired the 



EXALTED ANTICIPATIONS. 



81 



elementary branches, it is of no use afterwards to try to remedy 
the deficiency. 

Toe Parents^ school, patronized by the Presidency and Regents 
of the University, with the members of the High Council, must 
have an immense influence in refining, elevating, and ennoblinf^ 
the mind of the public generally. Primary schools, opened under 
the direction of the chancellor, and inspected by the Eegents, are 
well attended by the children ; but the whole system is now like 
chaos being reduced to order. Their philosophers already aspire 
to something more than has yet been accomplished; and they 
assert that they shall soon revolutionize the kingdom of science, 
and surpass the most learned in mathematics, philosophy, and the 
sciences of observation. 

The geologist and chemist must directly come to them to learn 
the wonders developed from below, and in the mineral kingdoms ; 
and the botanist and naturalist to study the arcana of the principle 
of life, elaborated in the vegetable and animal. For, having " sought = 
first the kingdom of Heaven/' they look now for the promise of 
having all other things and knowledge added; but they sensibly add, 
that the Lord helps those who help themselves, and that their minds 
will only be quickened to perceive by the most intense industry.* 



* From one of the Regents, speaking of the University. — Phelps' 
24th July Oration, 1851. — "Beseeching the whole church to pray the 
Lord, our Heavenly Father, to send down some of the Regents from the 
great University of Perfection, as he did to Noah, Moses, and others, 
to unfold unto his servants the principles of wisdom, philosophy, and 
science, which are truth." — " But what with all the precious things of 
time, the inventions of man, the records from Japhet in the ark to 
Jonathan in Congress, embracing the wit and the gist, the fashions and 
the folly, which so methodically, grammatically, and transcendantall}^ 
grace the libraries of the elite of nations, really be worth to a saint, 
when our Father sends down his regents, the angels, from the grand 
library of Zion above, with a copy of the History of Eternal Lives ; the 
records of worlds ; the Genealogy of the Gods ; the philosophy of truth ; 
the names of our spirits from the Lamb's Book of Life ; and the songs 
of the sanctified?" — It must be recollected that things on earth are bat 
patterns of those in the celestial planet, according to Mormonism. 



82 



MORMON EDUCATION. 



The greatest cliange will be made in astronomy — the system of 
the world will be modified in the number, arrangement, and 
relations of the planets ; and any curious to anticipate what is to 
burst upon us, may discover an inkling in the Book of Abraham, 
which was brought to Nauvoo with some Egyptian mummies ; of 
which J oseph translated a portion written by the faithful patriarch, 
when he sojourned on the banks of the Nile, which relates to the 
planetary world; diving to the centre of the universe, and 
exhibiting the great orb Kolob, which revolves on its axis once in 
a thousand of our years, and around which all else that relates to 
man is supposed to wheel in endless lines. 

Their most profound mathematician, while in England, put forth 
a feeler essay, by which the Newtonian theories of gravitation, 
attraction, and repulsion, are overthrown; and all thj effects usu- 
ally attributed to them put upon the intelligence of element; and 
the motions of the universal atoms, either single or combined in 
mass, referred to the circumscribing and infusing power and pre- 
sence of the Holy Spirit, acting directly upon, and through all 
things. We have not time and perhaps patience would fail to fol- 
low the data and the argument used to prove this, — and we may 
Bafely trust all developments of this kind to their practical hands, 
and rely upon experiment to furnish them with facts that shall 
bring them into physical truth ; and hope that their researches will 
contribute something to the cause of science, and that their admi- 
rable theory of education, when fully carried out, will aid and en- 
rich our literary treasures. 

It is understood that the Saxon and Celtic classics, from which 
four-fifths of our spoken words are derived, will have a prominent 
place and comparative attention, and stand side by side in barbaric 
native strength with the more polished Greek and Latin. The 
sciences of observation, just taking a perfect form, and which 
meet more nearly the demand of the age in the educational mar- 
ket ; which are spread before the eye of every one that walks the 
field, tills the ground, or observes nature's curious ways in the 
house, the shop, the study, or under open skies, are those that 
will be pursued with the greatest ardor. 



ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 



83 



By the liberality of the last Congress, the delegate from Utah 
was furnished the means to select a fine librarVj and this munifi- 
cence will greatly aid the cause of education at their Zion Univer- 
sity. To search for wisdom in all good books was the behest 
of their great prophet, and the sentiment is fully inculcated on all. 

This people are jealous of their rights, and feel themselves 
entitled to enforce order by their own laws, and severely punish 
contempt of them. 

The administration of justice is of the most simple kind, and 
based on equity and the merits of the question, without reference 
to the precedents and technicalities, referring to the rules of the 
Mosaic code, and its manner of punishment, when applicable. 

Witnesses are seldom put on oath in the lower courts, and there 
is nothing known of the " law's delay,'' and the quibbles whereby 
I the ends of truth and justice may be defeated. But they have a 
criminal code called " The Laws of The Lord ; '' which has been 
given by revelation, and not yet promulgated ; the people not ^ 
bemg able quite to bear it, or the organization still too imperfect. 
It is to be put in force, however, before long, and when in vogue, 
ail grave crimes will be punished and atoned for, by cutting off 
the head of the offender. This regulation arises from the fact, 
that without shedding of blood there is no remission '' — and is 
intended as an act of mercy to the criminal, who, when he has 
unwisely or through Satanic wiles, jeoparded his salvation by evil 
acts, can, by willingly offering his neck to the block, atone for all 
his sins, and enter on the untried state of being'' absolved from 
guilt, through the sacrifice of his own blood, and obedience to thia 
^' law of the Lord." 

LOYALTY. 

Though this people fled to a foreign country to enjoy the liberty 
that persecution denied them in the states, as soon as they found 
their adopted land had come under the jurisdiction of the stripes 
and stars — which their own valor had helped to win in the army 
of the Pacific against IMexico, — they embraced the earliest oppor- 
tunity of declaring their adherence to the great charter of liberty 

i 



84 



DESTINY OF MORMONISM. 



and national glory, and announced to the world that it was given 
to our patriot fathers by divine inspiration, and that they will up- 
hold and defend it, though all the original parties shall secede and 
trample it under foot. 

They will make no law forbidden by the sacred constitution 
of the United States/^ and predict that the day is not far distant 
when they shall be solicited by patriotic American citizens, to 
descend from their rocky fastnesses, to enforce its sanctions upon 
those led astray by frantic political delusion and anarchy. 

The great eagle of America is now perched on her mountain 
eyrie, watching the unsafe wanderings of her brood ; and, ready 
to stretch her pinions for the flight, will soon collect them together 
again, and bear them on her wings to a place of safety. Firmly 
cherishing the belief of their divine mission to revolutionize the 
world, and that events are even now shaped to expedite their re- 
turn to the promised land Zion, they note the crimes, the folliea 
and turmoils in every place, and a record of them is kept and filed 
away with the archives of their church and state. These are held 
up as portents to demonstrate that the wrath of heaven is already 
being poured out, and the madness of political factions, the bitter 
strifes of different religions, — the wars of nations, and of peoples 
against their governments, together with the ravages of the cholera 
plague, all are declared to show the beginning of the end, and to 
herald the ultimate triumph of Mormonism. 

The books they keep are to be some of those at the great judg- 
ment, when "the books are opened" — their prophet has told them 
to keep a faithful record ; and their scribes are busy in forwarding 
the awful accounts that shall condemn this generation. 

They enter into the dark alleys of crowded cities, and ferret out 
the practices of secret associations in the dens of pollution ; and 
the details equal all the imagination can picture of the sins of 
Sodom and Gromorrha. They note down the aberrations from 
rectitude of the men entrusted with making and executing our 
.aws, or who minister at the altars of divine worship in this and 
other countries, until their criminal calendar of nations smells 
riink to heaven, and causes their members to regard themselves. 



MORMON ARGUMENTS. 



85 



in po^nt of purity, iu comparison, as clothed witli the resplendent 
white robe of righteousness. ^ 

And the listener to the eulogiums of Mormonism is pointed to 
the success that has attended their efforts — and they proudly 
challenge him to parallel the fact, that, without "scrip or purse/' 
an obscure individual, in the open light of the age which should 
be styled the most intelligent, from having the accumulated 
knowledge of those gone before to add to its own wisdom, should 
set on foot a scheme by which the deep mystery of a continent, 
peopled by two different races, is solved; the one swept oft* ere 
history began their record, save on the broken column and fallen 
arches of crumbling granite; the other without tradition of its 
origin, fast following its predecessor to oblivion, but now taught 
how to redeem its remnant, and knowing whence it came, regain 
pristine favor with heaven, in the path of duty well marked out — 
and which, in twenty years, has multiplied its devotees from six 
individuals to three hundred thousand — founded a state in the far 
off wilderness, and compelled a mighty nation f.o recognise them a 
separate people, with the right of self-government — proclaimed its 
mission on all the grand divisions of the earth, and taken converts 
from the patriarchal states of Rome, and the pagan isles of the 
ocean ; all this, too, while the fiercest persecution was chasing 
them from one refuge to another, and, under the ban of obloquy, 
impeaching their motives and the purity of their lives, as well as 
the scope of their doctrines. 

But what we predicate of their teachings and of their doctrines 
to-day, may not be the truth of either to-morrow. For by the 
doctrine of development, and having revelations according with 
the exigencies of the church, they may be bidden to change their 
policy, and suspend those commands found to be inapplicable to 
their condition, and the faith of the saints. 

Such suspension and withdrawal of privileges have already 
become precedents — and it should not strike us with surprise to 
hear that matrimony is confined again to a single pair, on the plea 
that it has fulfilled the intention of its fuunder^ and the word is 
8 



86 



THE SAINTS. 



prevailing fast enough to built up the faith on the earth, ready 
for the Lord's coming. 

The present Seer has caTitioned his people to be faithful, and 
they may hope any hour to receive a deputation from the " lost ten 
tribes of Israel/^ which shall confirm them, and signal the conver- 
sion of their red brethren, when "a nation shall be born in a 
day.^^ These lost tribes are supposed to be on a fragmentary part 
of the earth, which is either in space revolving with its parent 
planet, and called, as it is placed there The North Country,'^ or 
on some insular land, to which no vessel has ever been permitted 
to sail and return to pubKsh the place of abode. And there are 
four witnesses to the truth of the Gospel who have never tasted 
death; these are, Su John the Evangelist, who was to tarry till 
the Lord came, if he so willed it ; and three others of the church 
founded in America by Christ, who begged the like privilege and 
had it granted to them, as may be seen by consulting the Book of 
Mormon. 

These saints continue in perpetual manhood, and travel over the 
earth, assuming the language and costume of the country they 
happen to be in, and have visited some of the brethren of the 
Latter-Day Church, according to their own belief in receiving 
some remarkable strangers : they look anxiously for their appear- 
ance, to proclaim boldly their character and instruct the people 
from the temple pulpit; but this too will depend upon their faith- 
ful obedience to spiritual counsel. 

The Lord will not come till the Temple of Reception is built; 
the temple wall rise only by the efforts of a people specially orga- 
nized in the faith ; and this generation may fail and be rejected; 
but another may be raised up to do the work appointed, who will 
obey the revelation ; so is it taught and written. 

Thus have we endeavored to draw a true picture of the moun- 
tain Mormons; — the view was taken before ever seeing any 
history of their doctrines or polity by others ; — it is the result 
of observation and listening to their teachings, and reading a few 
of their own accredited books; and, as far as possible, we have 
endeavored to make them sketch their own portrait. 



POLICY TOWARDS THE MORMONS. 



87 



The policy of our own government in giving them rulers select- 
ed from themselves, is so just to them in their present condition, 
and so well calculated to allay their irritated feelings, aroused by 
the injustice &nd oppression of the mobs, which were left unrebuk- 
ed if not sanctioned by state authorities, that it cannot be too 
much commended. 

It has caused a revulsion of feeling, and taught them to make 
a distinction between the lawless acts of congregated individuals, 
and the governors of the state, and the sense of gratitude and 
kindness is shown by their lately selecting a site for a city in the 
beautiful Parvan valley, in the county of Millard^ to be called 
Fillmore, which shall be the civil Capital of the territory, as the 
Temple City is the head quarters and Capital for the higher 
spiritual power. The magnanimity of a people, far separated 
from all others, is thus appealed to, instead of wounding their 
pride, — it is the field on which the freedom of conscience is to be 
tried ; — it is the cause of political liberty, successfully contended 
for by the revolutionary fathers, in the estimation of that portion 
of American citizens ; and under the permanent law of Congress^ 
they ask for self-government to test their fealty as a matter of right 
and justice. 

Therefore, we may be permitted to say, that this course of ju- 
dicious action may secure a law-abiding people ; and soon we may 
expect to see a thriving, peaceful state added to the extending 
Union under the name of Deseret — The Land of the Honey 
Bee. 



4 



PART SECOND.— HISTORY. 



CHAPTER 1. 

EARLY PERIOD OF MORMONISM. 

In what has preceded, we have aimed more to give a view of the 
people of Utah, the Mormons, as they delineate themselves, than 
to criticise their creed, or controvert their pretensions. During a 
year's residence among them, there was an opportunity of observing 
them impartially, and having no knowledge of their doctrines in 
advance, their whole system became one of study,, unfettered by 
prejudice. Since leaving them, curiosity has led me to investigate 
the motives of the opposition which they have encountered, both 
in regard to their religious opinions and political actions. 

We find that they are regarded by many as dangerous to the 
state, and subverters of our holy religion. The system is held up 
as the result of impudent imposture, and interested knavery. 
Their miracles, which had so much to do in its early success, are 
accounted for in the same manner as those of the Mesmeric phi- 
losopher, or those of a monkish priesthood: — the performers of 
them perhaps deceived themselves and the lookers-on, duped by a 
deceiving imagination, and led astray by a deluding superstition. 
They call up historical facts, and exhibit before us similar fanati- 
cism in all ages of the church, in which whole countries and com- 
munities have been overwhelmed for a time, and which passing 
SLway, are the wonder of after ages; and we come to the melan- 
choly conclusion that nothing is too absurd when it assumes the 
name of religion, to have its thousands of votaries. 

By this rule of historical evidence, — by the facts contempora- 
neous with the development of Mormonism, are we called upon to 

(88) 



ii 



THE BOOK OF MORMON. 



89 



test the truth of its origin in heavenly revelation or successful 
human derivation. 

The addition to the Sacred Record, The Book of Mormon, is 
at the foundation of the scheme, and we will first see how it is 
proved to be the work of one of sufficient genius to produce it; 
and then show how it has been made to lay so firm a hold on 
many minds. Its style and literary merits are not parts of the 
question at all — we have only to observe that it is the most suc- 
cessful attempt ever made to imitate the Scriptures, not in its com- 
position, but in its pretension to be an inspired text. 

There have been several versions of the story, but, after the 
most mature investigation we have been enabled to give to the sub- 
ject, the following seems most consistent with the facts yet pub- 
lished. All is established on the most positive testimony of 
individuals under oath, which is essential to the point at issue. 
As this will controvert the statements of the Prophet,'^ Joseph 
Smith, and his father's family, we ask the opinion of their neigh- 
bors whether their assertions are entitled to unquestioned credit. 
Fifty-one gentlemen of Palmyra, New York, and eleven of Man- 
chester, and several persons who lived near the family residence, 
and often labored for days in company with them, all testify to 
the same effect — ^-that they consider them destitute of that moral 
character, which ought to entitle them to the confidence of any 
community — and particularly that the senior and junior Josephs, 
were entirely unworthy of belief in such matters; and addicted to 
vicious habits.^' They were visionary men, and believed that hid- 
den treasures were in the vicinity, and often employed themselves 
in digging for them and money. They used what in Scotland are 
denominated " Seer-stones,'' through which persons, born under 
peculiar circumstances, can see things at a distance, or future 
events passing before their eyes, or things buried in the earth.* 
Such a stone was dug from a well by one Willard Chase, which 
was loaned to the prophet Joseph, and retained by him, and witli 
which some of the family declared he read in the Grulden Bible. 



* Like the Mediaeval Crystallomaiicy. 

8* 



90 



JOSEPH SMITH AND HIS FAMILY. 



In after times, he said that he used two stones^ set in the two rims 
of a bow, the Urim aud Thummim of the ancients ; and probably 
this seer-stone gave rise to the idea that it would be a sure way of 
gaining belief. These stones are those spoken of in the Book of 
Mormon, as the ones touched by the finger of God for the use of 
Jared in his barges, when he crossed the Pacific to settle America. 
They became shining lights in his dark vessel. The family also 
used peach and witch-hazel rods, to detect and drive ofi* evil spirits, 
when digging for money ] and such branches are supposed by many 
to point out streams of running water beneath the surface; and 
are used by miners frequently to find the lodes of mineral, for the 
currents of water are presumed to run parallel with the veins. 
They take a forked stick, and hold a prong in each hand, the stem 
pointing upward, and walk about the field; — if there are any 
underground springs, the stick will turn downward toward it in 
spite of the holder. Tales of such discoveries are told among 
this people, and firmly believed at present, not alone by them, but 
by persons in every part of the country. 

It has already been mentioned that in 1823, under the preach- 
ing of a Methodist elder, the prophet,^' as we shall continue to 
call Joseph, and his father's family, were converted or excited, in 
a "revival of religion.'^ This resulted in giving a portion to the 
Presbyterians, but leaving the prophet greatly perplexed among 
the rival sects, who were striving to enlist the converts under some 
particular banner. In viewing "this struggle for the spoils of 
victory,'^ his original mind took the idea that there was but little 
to choose between them, and that all matters wrangled upon were 
mere opinions. Yet he could see that there was a religious 
element in the human character, which was apt to be swayed by 
the circumstances surrounding the individual. On that little 
theatre were shown the scenes attending the preaching of Peter 
the Hermit, the enthusiasm of the disciples of Matthias of 
Munster, on a diminished scale ; but enough to exhibit the 
tendency of fanaticism and mystic feeling in a multitude. And 
he did not fail to observe that a permanent influence remained 
when the exciting causes were over — that some would continue 



VISION OF JOSEPH SMITH. 



91 



their course, and search out reasons to substantiate their notions, 
instead of testing them in cool judgment, their pride or rheii 
vanity being enlisted — others, feeling a depression of spirits, would 
unite in social gatherings and rouse what they called "a happy 
feeling/' by harangues and vociferous prayers — and not a few 
would join in the popular current to be with their friends, and 
enjoy variety and novelty. 

During this rivalry of the sects, also, their peculiar views were 
freely discussed, of course, and to one so observatit, rheii 
theological notions, supported each by Bible Commentaries, were 
well digested by Joseph. Could a compounded system be deduced 
from them that would suit a majority of minds, and their attention 
joined to it, the task of founding a ^Miew church," would not 
seem a very great work to one who looked upon each of those 
bodies bearing the name, as equally a true one, or only organiza- 
tions for carrying out human purposes. Judging from what he 
says in his autobiography, ideas of this kind now took possession 
of his mind, on which he systematically acted during the remainder 
of his career. He informs us that he engaged in earnest prayei 
for enlightenment. He rose at night and continued his supplica- 
tions. In September of that year, when all else was hushed in 
sleep, his prayers were answered by a heavenly vision. An angel 
in all the splendor of light, radiating from his head, with eyes of 
lambent flame, and hair like fleecy wool, stood before him. His 
naessage was that Joseph should gird himself for the work of the 
Lord, and go forth among men and restore His church. No doubt 
he had a remarkable dream that night, waking or sleeping — for 
though the vision was repeated in the most resplendent manner, 
and important revelations given concerning the manner of found- 
ing a new church," and information upon the subject of hidden 
records on plates of gold in the vicinity — yet he informs us that 
he ^Mvont tiK/^..f Uio wnrV as usual on the following morning." 
'The conception of the plan mio-Kh wpU be called his brilliant 
klorv:" in figurative language original thougiits a.c ^ 
land mature reflections heavenly counsellors. There was a floating 
' story abroad that a golden Bible had been found in Canada, and 



92 



SMITH MARRIES MISS HALE. 



many little circumstances conspired soon, to give consistency to 
what was then planned for a future development. 

About this period Joseph leaves his father's residence, and for 
four years was passing to and fro between Wayne, New York, 
and Susquehanna counties, Pennsylvania. The first two years are 
much involved in mystery; the autobiography hefps us to little 
knowledge of the manner in which they were passed on the line 
of travels and sojourns in the counties of Onondaga and Chenango, 
though it is asserted that his name can be found on the criminal 
records, having been arrested as a vagabond. He acquired great 
reputation for money-digging. A man by the name of Stowell, in 
Bainbridge, New York, employed him to dig for hidden treasure 
in the neighborhood. Some legends of the wandering Spaniards 
from De Soto's band, and the wealth of the aboriginal inhabitants 
buried on the banks of the Susquehanna, had fired the imagina- 
tions of the old Dutchman, and a company was in search of the 
untold wealth. The seer-stone and the mineral rod were already 
familiar to Joseph, and his pretensions and frequent search caused 
him to be called the ^^money-digger.'' 

While laboring in his profession at Harmony, Pennsylvania, 
he became acquainted with Miss Hale, and persuaded her to elope 
with him, and they were clandestinely married. Previous to this, 
however, he had made a journey home, and there reported that 
silver ore was to be had on the Susquehanna, and induced one 
Laurence to carry him back, promising to share with him in an 
enterprise to fill a boat with ore, and carry it to Philadelphia. On 
searching for the mine, it could not be found, and the man went 
back disappointed. In 1826, Joseph again duped his friend 
Stowell, by telling him that he had discovered, near his father's 
residence, a bar of gold in a cave, and offered to go and cut it off 
with a chisel, and give him one half of it, if Stowell would move 
him and wife to Wayne County. Thon^irli oil fr>v>r,or trials had 
failed, the honest old fellow cgnsPTifpd. a^a with his stout team 



cq: 

tnen Joseph refused to leave his br: 



ide 



amo.g strangers and the Dutchnaan returned to his home to 
cultivate h,s cabbages, and to regret once more the "golden 



ill 



AUTHORSHIP OF THE BOOK OF MORMON. 



93 



opportunity^^ lost. This is the substance of the history of tho 
time between the first angelic apparition and the announcement 
that the plates had been delivered him by the angel, and the 
translation begun. 

The whole explication of the Book of Mormon hangs on the 
satisfactory solution of a few obscure points in the following cir- 
cumstances. A Romance to show the manner of peopling Amer- 
ica by some Jews and the "lost ten tribes of Israel;'' the wars, 
and economy of living among their descendants, and the division 
into tribes as they were found in our Indians at the discovery by 
Columbus, is known to have been written by the late Rev. Mr. 
Spalding at Conneaut, Ohio. This was just previous to 1812, and 
his brother testifies that their " arts, sciences and civilization were 
brouD"ht into view, in order to account for all the curious antiauities 
found in various parts of North and South America.'' A clear 
idea of the work can be had from the affidavit of Mr. Henry Lake, 
given at Conneaut, in 1833, which is corroborated by abundant 
other testimony. 

He affirms : " I left the state of New York in the year of 1810, 
and arrived in this place about the first of January following. 
Soon after my arrival I formed a copartnership with Solomon 
Spalding * * *. He frequently read to me from a manuscript 
which he was writing, and which he entitled the Manuscript 
Found," which he represented as being found in this town. I 
spent many hours in hearing him read said writings ; and became 
acquainted with their contents. He wished me to assist him in 
getting it printed, alleging that a book of that kind would meet 
with a rapid sale. This book represented the American Indians 
as the lost tribes, gave an account of their leaving Jerusalem, their 
contentions and wars, which were many and great. One time, 
when ho was reading to me the tragic account of Laban, I pointed 
out to him what I considered an inconsistency, which he promised 
, to correct ; but by referring to the Book of Mormon, I find to my 
I surprise it stands there, just as be read it to me then. Some 
months ago I borrowed a golden Bible, ^ * * had not read twenty 
1 minutes before I w^as astonished to find the same pasr>aoYs in it 



94 



WANDERINGS OF THE MANUSCRIPT. 



*hat Spalding had read to me, more than twenty years before, from 
his "Manuscript Found/ ^ Since then, I have more fully exam- 
ined the said golden bible, and have no hesitation in saying that 
the historical part of it is principally, if not wholly, taken from 
the Manuscript Found. I well recollect telling Mr. Spalding 
that the too frequent use of the words, " Now it came to pass,^' 

And it came to pass,'^ rendered it ridiculous. Spalding left here 
In 1812, and I furnished him with the means to carry him to 
Pittsburg, where he said he would get the book printed and [)ay 
me. But I never heard any thing more from him, or of his wri- 
tings, till I saw them in the Book of Mormon. 

The same in effect is the evidence of the brother of Spalding, 
that he heard much of the "Manuscript^' read, and that, accord- 
ing to his best recollection, "The Book of Mormon is the same 
as my brother Solomon wrote, with the exception of the religious 
matter. All this is confirmed by more than half a dozen other 
gentlemen, and by the widow and daughter of the author of Man- 
uscript Found.'' It was also made known that a change in his 
original design was made. At first the Romance began, by fitting 
out the emigrant Jews at Rome, and a quire of paper was written ; 
— but not liking that origin, he started from Jerusalem, with 
Lehi and his four sons, as the leaders of the enterprise, under 
divine instruction. 

We have followed the Manuscript Found to Pittsburg; its fur- 
ther traces are not so palpable. It has been supposed it was left 
with the printer Lambdin, and that Sidney ivigdon was employed 
to edit it for the press ; and that, by collusion with Smith, whose 
money-digging reputation was notorious^ the miraculous plan of 
translation was concerted. Subsequent events discredit this sup 
position The author of the Manuscript left Pittsburg in 1814, 
and two years afterwards died in the southern part of Pennsj'lva- 
nia. His widow, shortly after this event, removed to Onondaga 
county. New York, near to her early residence, and carried a trunk 
thither, containing the writings of her deceased husband. She 
spent much of her time for three years in visiting her friends in 
^djoining counties, and resided awhile at Hartwick, not far from 



THE DESTINY OP THE MANUSCRIPT. 



95 



the home of the Stowell above mentioned. During a part of the 
time from 1817 to 1820^ when she again married and moved to 
Massachusetts, the trunk, supposed to contain the writings, was at 
her brother's in Onondaga Hollow, near the residence of the 
Smith family • — Wayne and Onondaga counties being separated 
by a narrow township of land. 

When the Book of Mormon appeared, and its almost identity 
with the Manuscript was discovered by those familiar with the lat- 
ter, enquiry was made for the whereabouts of that paper. It had 
mysteriously disappeared, and the Manuscript Found has ever 
since been the Manuscript lost. The trunk was hunted up and 
searched, but only the quire of paper with the Roman exodus 
was in it; out of all that it formerly contained, this alone was left. 
How the Manuscript could have been taken out, and when, re- 
mains a mystery, and probably ever will remain unknown. Like 
the history of the first Mormon Seer, the transits of that trunk can 
hardly now be traced in those same counties of Chenango, Otsego, 
and Onondaga, — and what process was going on in the interiors 
of each, is left to conjecture. But a curious coincidence of dates 
and habitations exists between them, which subsequent develop- 
ments connect together. 

From these circumstances, just hinted at in the above account, 
it seems fair to conclude, that the Manuscript Found escaped from 
its prison and perched upon some farmer's shelf ; or fell direct, by 
accident or design, into the hands of Joseph Smith, and opportune- 
ly met the mind that could mould it into a religious fiction. Much 
has been said of his stupidity and illiterate character ; but no doubt 
these qualities, if a negation may be so denominated, are great- 
ly exaggerated. Like the cobbler at his Pilgrim ^s Progress, peo- 
ple took the profession and scholastic lore of the man as the mea- 
sure of his genius. But what is genius? and who will venture 
to define it? Its efixBcts we see, and turn aside from the hum- 
drum of life to observe how it rivets the attention of many to its 
artistic creations, and whirls them out of the eddies of their own 
thoughts and opinions into the onward current, — to think and be- 
lieve in those of the author. 



96 



JOSEPH smith's views. 



Here is a book that takes fast hold of the minds of hundreds 
of thousands, and so skilfully aiTanged on the model of the true 
Bible, and so garnished with versions and extracts of its text, 
that it becomes to them a verisimilitude of the Holy Book itself. 
Such wonderful influence is not due to those extracts alone, which 
constitute one eighteenth part of the whole; but rather to the inge- 
nious arrangement of its plot, and the decided non-committalism 
to any sect of Christians or prominent doctrine ; if we except the 
mode of adm.inistering the rite of baptism in the Nephite churches. 

Nor was that a stupid man who could wield the powers of life 
and death over a multitude in an enlightened age and community, 
and cause his memory to be revered by the sincere, and gain in 
their estimation the proud position of being ^Hhe most perfect 
man and powerful mind we ever saw/' for such an eulogium have 
we often heard. 

He had a religious turn of mind, and at the great revival' ' an 
impression was surely made, the stamp of which was never 
effaced from his character. He emerged from the conflicting waves 
of various religious opinions and visionary speculations raging 
around him ; and sought to arrange a system that would suit all 
minds, and draw them into one communion. His associations 
were vulgar, but such as made him acquainted with the weak side 
of humanity. He early saw that numbers were of more conse- 
quence than intellectual attainments in the sects, in point of 
infl.aence. It is a prime point to enlist the less cultivated many^ 
which at last invariably carries the unstable part of the cultivated 
few y who, if they do not yield a full acquiescence, are willing to 
be reckoned of the host, and think to lead by non-resistance. 

The first idea must have been to make a book that should 
account for the peopling of America, and the ruins that are 
spread over much of its surface, showing evidences of a former 
civilization. Various theories were afloat on this mysterious 
subject. That of Jewish origin is an old one. The traditions 
collected from the Indians and compared with the Asiatic — the 
disappearance of the ten tribes, and Hebrew notions among the 
aborigines — the discovery of ruined cities and temples in Central 



PREPARATIONS TOR PUBLISHING. 



97 



America — the relics of pottery, bricks, and stumps of axe-cut 
trees, buried for beneath the surface of the Mississippi valley — all 
had coQspired to arouse curiosit3r. The book that should gain the 
credit of elucidating these subjects would be highly remunerative. 

But some slight incidents occurring while such thoughts were 
revolving in his mind, gave a further and wider grasp to the plan. 
The biblical language of the manuscript, and the report then 
abroad that a gold Bible had been dug up in Canada, suggested 
the idea of calling it a Bible. In crossing a swampy grove, he 
found some pure white sand one day, left by a retiring freshet ; 
and he wrapped up a specimen in his frock, and carried it home. 
The family were at dinner. He announced to them that he had 
found a gold Bible. They seemed to believe him, and asked to 
see it. He gravely said that tbe angel forbade, for the person who 
should look upon it without authority should die. He was 
credited, and a few days after told a neighbor that he had fixed 
the fools, and would have some fun.''^ By this he saw the family 
were ready for any imposture. 

The plan being laid, and the manuscript in his possession in 
some way that he did not fear detection, he must then have 
determined to alter it to suit his own conceptions, from which a 
golden harvest was anticipated. It must have been with him, aod 
secreted at the first visit to his father's house in 1826; for, at that 
time, all of them set various rumors afloat, and very contradictory 
ones indeed, about a book found in the ground — and the complete 
history of its supernatural origin was not given until after its 
publication. The lucky accidents might well be considered by 
. him as his providences, and the kindness of a good aiigel. 
' The next attempt was on the credulity of Martin Harris, a 
' miserly, visionary man, who had been a member successively of 
several denominations. Meeting him, he abruptly told him that 
' the Lord had commanded him to advance fifty dollars to begin the 
I work of translation, and represented the great rewards to follow. 
I Harris's cupidity gave credit, if his judgment of the divine 
" mission was staggered. With this money the last visit to 
Harmony was made, and on his return the work commenced, and 
9 



98 



SMITH PREPARES THE MANUSCRIPT. 



Ilams became the scribe for a few weeks; and like Barucb for 
Jeremiah/ he wrote the words as he pronounced them with his 
mouth. ^ Harris became fully committed, furnished the moans 
of publication, by which he was pecuniarily ruined, preached the 
doctrine three years, and finally deserted what to him was a 
foundered ark. Harris was shortly substituted by a better 
scholar, Oliver Cowdery, a schoolmaster, who wrote out the five 
hundred octavo pages, and became one of the witnesses to iU 
divine orio;in, thoaojh he too failed and dissented in after times. 

The manner of writing was as follows : Smith would place his 
pseudo gold plates in a hat, and take the stones, Urim and Thum- 
mim, which he affirmed had been delivered to him at the hill 
Cumora, in Palmyra, by an angel — and, raising a screen of cloth 
between himself and the scribe, proceed to look through the stones, 
and the words, in reformed Egyptian characters, would change to 
his vernacular, and ^^pass before his eyes by the power and gift 
of Grod.^' He either concealed portions of the manuscript, or 
committed them to memory before beginning the day^s work, and 
thus dictated to his amanuensis. 

He gives us a graphic account of the first persecution by his neigh- 
bors, who tried to capture the ^^gold plates — and to escape from 
this, he concealed them in a barrel of beans and started for Penn- 
sylvania again. A writ for debt was served on him under a pre- 
tence, and he was overtaken and searched by the sheriii, but the 
functionary of the law was not bright enough to penetrate atnong 
the beans, or we should probably have to record a successful dis- 
covery of the Spalding mianuscript. In Harmony, the translation 
was pursued vigorously — and in three years the work was sent 
to the press. This time includes the ten months' suspension, on 
account of the abstraction of several sheets of the work by Mra. 
Harris, who could not be induced by threat or cajolement, to give 
them up. In order to evade this, the work is not vrhat was first 
intended bj the Lord : — and he received commandment to trans- 
late from an abridgment of the Plates of Nephi, instead of those 
of Lehi. It was revealed to him, that if -he retranslated from the 
game plates, Satan would alter the first and publish them, and, 



VIEWS ON THE JEWS AND INDIANS. 



99 



being different, it would discredit the performance ; but he was 
severely reprimanded for negligence in a revelation, and Cowdery 
sharply rebuked for impertinent curiosity, in wishing to see the 
golden plates, which was the prophets' privilege only. 

But let us return to the consideration of the plan in view by 
this great work. There was a higher object than the making of 
money by it; — and another purpose, beyond harmonizing the 
Christian world. 

The grand scheme was to convince the Jews in all the world 
that Jesus is the Christ/^ their long-expected Messiah, as fore- 
told by their ancient prophets. Accordingly, we find the prophe- 
cies here made perfectly plain. As Cyrus is spoken of in Isaiah, 
by name long before his advent, so the name and office of the 
Savior is declared by the Nephite seers. 

Nor was this all. The Indians throughout the length and 
breadth of the land were to be informed of their origin, — the 
cause of the divine wrath explained which had sunk them in degra- = 
dation; — and that "in the last days'' they could recover pristine 
favor, and again become a "fair and delightsome people," enjoy- 
ing temporal salvation and eternal happiness. Could he succeed 
in making these two peoples believe in his book as a divine record^ 
their conversion to Christianity was certain to follow. Nor was 
this thing beneath a soaring ambition, and its success would now 
place its author on the pinnacle of fame, — and the object to have 
been obtained was therefore a good one, whatever we may think 
of the deception attempted to be practised. 

Even now do the Mormon missionaries apply to Jewish Rabbis,' 
and ask them to listen to the voice of the gentile prophet, whose 
blood they aver has sealed the truth of his mission. We have 
lately seen the account of such ameetingat Amsterdam, but the 
Jew stands yet unconvinced and holds to his traditions; the In- 
dian listens to the talk " about the Great Spirit, and returns to 
the chase unconverted ; — all these seem to view the matter as 
the fiction of an enthusiast. 

The idea of founding a church with the new Seer as chief, does 
not, however, appear to have been entertained, until just before 



100 



ORGAXIZATIOX OF THE MORMON CHURCH. 



tlie printing the Book of Mormon. This was issued in 1830, and 
purports to give additional revelations of the dealings of Grod with 
his people, in the records that had been ^^hid up some fourteen 
hundred years before for preservation, but written for the Lama- 
nites [Indians] a remnant of the house of Israel, and for Jew and 
Gentile, by the spirit of prophecy and revelation; to come forth, 
in due time, hy way of Gentile * * to the convincing of Jew 
and Gentile, that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God/' This ex- 
tract from the preface shows fully its character and purpose. 

On the 6th of April of this year, the church, out of the Gen- 
tiles, was organized. There were but six members thus formed 
into the society, of which were, his father, and two brothers, and 
Coiwdery, his scribe. From that time forth the Smith family rose 
from poverty to opulence. But nothing has fallen under our 
notice to show that the present hierarchy was then contemplated. 
Joseph was the first Elder ^ and Cowdery the second. In progress 
of time this expanded into two priesthoods; namely, the Melchisedek 
the Eternal one, which had two orders, the high priests and priests 
out of which was taken the Apostles and Council ; — and the 
Aaronic, arranged into the various orders of elders, bishops, dea. 
cons, teachers, and so on. This is now the asserted imitation of 
the Primitive Apostolic Church, but if there is any resemblance 
of the office attached to the like names, we have seen no proof yet 
given. 

It is related that Cowdery first baptised the prophet, and then 
the church had one commissioned to act; — and in the Book of 
Covenants the sponsors given are no less than the angels or spirits 
of Moses and Elias, and the Presidency of the first Christian 
church, Peter, James, and St. John in his own body, as he has 
never died. The " commissioned prophet, now baptised and 
^' commissioned Elders, who began their enthusiastic preaching, 
and converted several visionary characters, persons without settled 
notions of theology, and likely to be carried away by the last fer- 
vid, popular harangue that should be addressed to them. "Whole 
families were thus captivated, and the New Revelation and 
revival of the Old Church made much noise in the neighboring 



ACCESSIONS TO THE FAITH. 



101 



counties; and in a few months branches were organized in Fayette 
and ColesviJle, bodies which were mere associations however. 

In the following August a Campbellite preacher, and one of some 
notoriety in Ohio, who was preaching notions and holding views of 
prophecy, restoration of the children of Israel and the Millennium^ 
similar to those still taught in the Morm.on society, made a visit to 
the State of New York and accidentally met with the Book of 
Mormon, and became convinced of its authenticity. This was 
the eloquent speaker, the pious song-poet, the enthusiastic Apos- 
tle, Parly P. Pratt. He is the author of many books of doctrine 
and history of persecutions among his people 3 and among vthose 
books is the Yoice of Warning to all Nations,^' which has done 
more in giving texts and establishing Mormonism than all the 
other publications of that people. This man is at present the 
chief of the " Stakes in the Pacific islands. On his return to 
Ohio he presented the new bible to the still more enthusiastic and 
famed " Eeformed Disciple/^ the ingenious and versatile Sidney 
Rigdon. He too adopted the new system ; visited the Prophet 
and returned to call his society together, and then in a two hours' 
discourse of fervid eloquence, eloquent to those hearers, he expos- 
tulatedj instructed, explained, and converted them ; — he wept 
tears of sorrow and of joy over them, fell into swoons several 
times, and related visions of heaven to them. They became real 
fanatics. 

It must be noted here that Higdon had for three years already 
taught the literal interpretation of scripture prophecies, the 
gathering of the Israelites to receive the second coming, the 
literal reign of the Saints on earth, and the use of miraculous 
gifts in tlie church. From that visit of his to Joseph, do we date 
the Mormon organization of a church. In the conversations^ with 
Rigdou, the dawn of the morning gave place to the full light of 
li.o Sun, in the mind of its founder. Nothing yet had been 

j written which forbade any method of discipline deemed expedient 
for the society ; nor concerning doctrines which njight not be 
iiiterpreted to suit any circuuistances. Accordingly we find the 

Ij Revelations'' assuming a definite form. Rigdon is appointed 



102 



EXCITED MEETINGS. 



expounder, and assigned an important post in the church ; and 
soon is made the second person and great counsellor. But, in 
fact, he was the first in matters of theology, and wrote the Lectures 
on Faith, which preface the Book of Covenants and Doctrines, 
which were adopted by Smith, who purports to be the author, on 
the title-page. Since the apostasy of Bigdon, the faithful declare 
that he was once mighty in the faith, and a bright star in Zion, 
but, like Lucifer, has awfully fallen. 

The conference of those two peculiar minds, spoken of above, 
was held in the autumn. In January following, a revelation is 
given, commanding those in the east to remove to the place which 
Bigdon had long since declared was on the borders of the "in- 
heritance of the Saints, which extended thence to the Pacific.^' 
The prophet and his people removed to Kirtland, Ohio, where 
Pratt and Bigdon had already a society of over a thousand to re- 
ceive them. New ardor and energy were infused, and such won- 
derful tales of visions, voices, and miracles were spread abroad, that 
people flocked from all parts of the lake region to witness and 
judge of this new thing. There were extacies — men and women 
falling to the floor in the public assemblies, wallowing, rolling, and 
tossing of hands — pointing into the heavens at the "cloud of 
witnesses'^ — uttering Lidian dialects, and declaring that they 
would immediately convert them — there was swooning — rushing 
out of doors and running to the fields, some would mount stones 
and stumps, and speak in loud " tongues some would pick up 
the stones and read from characters of writing, which were 
miraculously made, and then suddenly disappeared — others found 
pieces of parchment falling upon them, which they declared were 
sealed with the seal of Christ, and which they no sooner copied 
than they vanished. The utmost excitement prevailed in their 
meetings, and it was all attributed to "the outpouring of the 
Spirit/' The prophet himself seems to have become alarmed lest 
the "vision^' should pass from him, and the vocation of Seer and 
Bevelator become equally that of all. Accordingly he began to 
preach moderation, and finally informed them that it was the work 
of the devil, who was counterfeiiing the gifts of the Spirit; and 



REVELATION TO SMITH. 



103 



the faithful were cautioned to beware. Another revelation soou 
followed'. This made the spiritual duties of the Seer " so 
onerous, that he was told that strength to work would not be given 
him. He was to live ^'hj the church/^ and through him alone 
was to come all the counsel of wisdom, and ghostly strength f^r 
the enlightenment of the same. He was privileged to conver.se 
with angels. All must obey him as the voice of lii: Most High, 
when the message was with the prefix *^ Thus saith the Lord/^ 
under the penalty of the Divine wrath. 



CHAPTEK 11. 



7.4ilIOUS SETTLEMENTS, AND PROGRESS. 

If the impnlsiveness of the swooniug Rigdon drove hijD o^^- 
sionally to excess^ in cooler moments he was the advocate of order 
and system. His was a restless character^ between extremes. 
But the genius of Smith was a match for his ardor. In order to 
divert his attention and keep him in the traces, new and other 
work was carved out. A revelation is given in June, by which 
the principal elders, in parties of two, are directed west, to preach 
by the way and in the cities along their routes; and by a fixed 
time to meet on the borders of the Missouri. This mission was 
for selecting a site for a temple in the ^Mand of Zion,^^ and to 
found a city to be called Zion, the New Jerusalem of the Saints. 
This part of the country was chosen with great attention to its 
beauty of location, richness of soil, and all the requisites of a 
great empire. The point selected was near Independence, and 
where they were informed ^^from heaven,'^ Adam^s altar was builr, 
and in the very centre of the Garden of Eden. Here it was 
supposed they could expand unmolested, and convert the sparse 
population over to their views, or buy out any unconvinced of the 
propriety of joining them. They sadly mistook the character of 
the pioueers of civilization, as the sequel proved. 

The site for a city was selected, the land consecrated, and they 
proceeded to lay the corner-stone of the temple amid the beautiful 
groves which witnessed the Druidical pageantry. Here was to be 
the grand centre of gathering, and all other places of similar 
organization were to be called Stakes of Zion'' — here was the 
place where the kings of the earth were to bring their wealth, and 
the streets were to be paved with gold and precious stones. But 
as yet the "stakes'' onl}^ flourish, while the consecrated "Zion'*^ 

(104) 



THE MORMONS PERSECUTED. 



105 



lies silent in the umbrageous forest groves on the banks of the 
great Missouri. The everlasting residence is yet uninhabited, 
and ^^the abodes of plenty and peace/^ the ^^joy of the whole 
earth lie, as yet, in the peaceful silence of the wilderness. 

The three hundred missionaries forwarded their converts hither, 
and there was soon collected over 1200 in Jackson County 
and the vicinity, buying lands and cultivating them peaceably. 
The heads of the church returned, shortly after the ceremony of 
laying the corner-stone, to Shinehar, as they now named the 
Kirtland ^^stake,^^ and engaged in building a temple there, laying 
off a city, and offering town lots for sale. A\\ property was 
consecrated to the Lord, and the doctrine laid down, that the 
Saints were only stewards of v/hat they had in charge, and that a 
tenth part of all, labor, earnings, and time, should be dedicated 
forthwith, and for ever, to the use of the priesthood, under direc- 
tion of the Presidency. Public store-houses were erected to 
receive the tithes and donations, and the bishops put in charge of = 
the collection. 

Two years thus passed quietly away in the temporal matters, 
though strifes and apostacies became alarmingly frequent in 
spiritual concerns. Opportunely for the waning power of the 
prophet, a turmoil appeared in Zion, and persecution came to his 
aid, and cemented the union among those not anathematised. The 
people in Jackson County collected and drove out the Mormons, 
their neighbors, who were obliged to take refuge across the river; 
but they refused to sell their lands, which belonged to the ^'Saints 
of the Lord/' and they could not alienate them. When Joseph 
heard of these troubles, he sent forth a revelation, which informed 
his people that Heaven was visiting for their lack of faith, strifes 
and disagreements, but that he would chastise and return them 
again to their inheritance. To make this good, a party called the 
Array of Zion'' left Ohio to aid their brethren, being armed and 
drilled for the service ; but before they arrived on the ground, the 
mob, or a party of militia, met them and demanded a parley. As 
the heavens opened not in vengeance on the enemy, the prophet 
disbanded his party instead of fighting, and his demonstration not 



106 



VARIOUS REMOVALS. 



LaviDg the effect of awing the country into submission, the holy 
soldiery dispersed. Some of these remained in Missoori, joining 
their brethren ; others returned to Ohio, but many fell with the 
cholera. This last was declared to be the fulfilling of prophecy, for 
"judgment must begin at the house of Grod," bat it was to pass 
thence and utterly destroy their enemies. 

The attack upon those in Jackson County appears to have been 
without provocation, other than fears of their clanship. There 
had been no complaint of misdemeanors, and this expulsion, 
without color of law, was most unjust and oppressive. The 
following year, 1834, a guard was furnished by the Grovemor, and 
an attempt to secure redress was made in the courts, but th^ 
mobocratic spirit was so prevalent that the attomej-geneial 
advised the abandonment of the suit, and the dvil proceedings 
were given up accordingly. 

More peaceable times now seemed to hover over the Mormon 
fortunes. They gathered rapidly together in Clay and adjoining 
counties, and pressed forward their farming operations vigorously; 
and plenty again appeared on their tables, and comfort in their 
dwellings. At Kirtland, in the autumn of 1835^ a Hebrew and 
theological school was formed, and several hundred elders attended 
the instructions given by a celebrated Hebraist and ediolar. In 
the following spring, several of these now learned doctors repaired 
to Missouri, and large accessions flocked in from abroad, which so 
alarmed the old inhabitants of Clay County, that thej determined 
to drive them away. The evident clanship and unity of action in 
all matters, caused these new comers to he distrusted. Various 
conferences were held, and consulting committees appointed, during 
the year, and finally an arrangement was made, by which it was 
stipulated that the Mormons should withdraw to Caldwell, if 
lands were procured in exchange for those they should leave ; and 
the afifair was amicably arranged, and the removal effected. Here, 
in the hope of a permanent residence, they set to work again with 
more than usual ardor. 

Meanwhile swimming operations in lots, l ui' diDrs. I auks, s^ni 
manufactures, were in full tide at Kirtland. A kr^'e niercSkLiile 



FAILURE AT KIRILA.VD. 



107 



house was started on a tithe basis, and obtained credit to a 
nonsidcrable amount; and in 1837 a bank was set in motion, and 
property assumed fictitious values. The temple, with its various 
compartments for giving and receiving endowments, or for 
imparting and obtaining the gifts of the Spirit, was so far 
advanced that the rites were actually held. For some days wine 
flowed freclv — wine that had been consecrated, and declared by 
the prophet to be harmless and not intoxicating. This, with 
previous fastings, and expectations wrought up to the highest pitch, 
and other means used to create mental excitement, produced 
unheard of effects, if we may credit the witnesses of these 
proceedings. Visions, tongues, trances, wallowings on the ground, 
shoutings, weeping, and laughing, the outpouring of prophecies, 
and terrible cursings of the 3Iissourians, exhortations from house 
to house, and preaching to unseen nations ) these, and other 
fantastic things, were among '-the signs following'^ at Kirtland. 

Not long after followed the crash of the speculations. The ^ 
improvident habits of sudden wealth, the unwise investments in 
lots, houses, and mills, and the loose management of the mercantile 
firm, brought on embarrassments in 1838. The bank failed, and 
the mana^jers were prosecuted for swindlino-. Smith and Kio-don 
secretly departed for far-west, the new Zion, and thus escaped to 
'•'the city of refuge,^^ from the sheriff and his writs, and perhaps 
from the penitentiary. Here they imparted to the Saints the 
developing nature of their own spirits. Xew cities were located, 
and settlements begun in Davies, Caldwell, and Carroll counties. 
The spot where Adam blessed his children was revealed, and a 
city was founded in the valley, to be called Adam-mon-diamoj-j 
significant of the patriarchal blessing. 



CHAPTER III. 



CONTENTIONS IN MISSOURI. 

The leaders began to feel confident of sustaining any desirable 
measures and ruling the counties. Their followers had greatly 
increased^ and Avere obedient to their will. They now injudiciously 
boasted of their power, and proclaimed that hereafter they should 
not submit to vexatious lawsuits, nor yield to the violence of mobs. 
The favor of the Almighty was on their side, and one could 
chase a thousand.^' On the other hand, the older inhabitants com- 
plained of the loss of property, and alleged that no confidence could 
be placed in contracts made with the Mormons. When credit was 
given, they could not find the persons to collect dues : fictitious 
names were used to obtain goods and chattels, and when enquiries 
were made for certain persons, nobody could be found who ever 
heard of them. Also they began to fear that the doctrine of tlu 
Saints' right to property, would render their possessions insecure 
Crimination and recrimination became frequent and mutual. Bu 
we may readily believe that the fears of the Missourians were more 
aroused on the prospect of losing political ascendency. In their 
meetings to consult on the alarming state of affairs, they resolved 
that the rule of the counties should never be submitted to the 
control of Joseph Smith.^' 

Peace and prosperity had given leisure for more sober reflection to 
the thoughtful and sincere among the Mormons. They began to 
consider the tendency of their doctrines, the uncharitableness of 
their principles, and the consequences to result from exclusive clan- 
ship ; but more than this, the truthfulness of the leaders and claims 
of their prophet. The result was, that many dissented and joined in 
the sentiments of their neighbors. These were hated and feared far 
more than those styled Gentiles; and to expel the "traitors," as 

(108) 



VIOLENCE OE RIGDON. 



109 



^ell as to guarantee and protect against open enemies, the chief 
persons organized a secret society, with signs and Key-words/^ 
called the Big Fan, and afterwards known as the Danites. These 
were sworn to obey the Presidency in all things, right or wrong ; 
and drive off, or put out of sight in a mysterious manner, all w^ho 
were obnoxious or irretrievably lost, to them; and suspicious 
strangers in Far West were to be removed. That persons suddenly 
disappeared or "slipped their breath is often affirmed by them 
selves, but they say they were horse-thieves and vile wretches, who 
left society for its good. 

The sanguine preaching of enthusiastic priests had infused 
boasting valor into the mass, and a warlike tone pervaded all 
classes against any who should attack them or dispute their pre- 
tensions, — the same as now prevails in the mountains against the 
ideas of oppression. Rigdon became excessively violent, and 
t-a.ught the Saints that they must expect to fight; — that traitors 
must be dealt with according to the law of the Lord, instancing 
the fate of Judas, whose bowels, he said, were trampled out by the 
Apostles; and Ananias and Sapphira, who were killed l?y Peter. 
In a fourth of July oration, commended by the prophet in his 
Journal published among them, he threw down the gauntlet to the 
State and all opposers, and pronounced, woe to them, in the 
name of Jesus Christ.^^ They declared themselves able to march 
through the Capital, and if the mob obliged them to fight, they 
would not stop until St. Louis was in their possession. It would 
seem that the disgrace of failing to build Zion, as predicted, and 
the insults and injuries already received, had wrought up this 
leader, and those kindred in spirit, to desperation ; and perceiving 
the mobocratic feeling rising a third time, they desired to overawe 
it, if possible, by a threatening demonstration, or stake their for^* 
tunes on the hazards of a war to the knife, by which they might 
clear the neighborhood of the disaffected; and on the plea of self- 
defence, afterward make peaceable terms with the State authorities 
When such dispositions existed on both sides, causes light as 
air'^ could bring them into collision; and mutual acts of plunder 
and retaliation became frequent. At an election of county officers 
10 



110 



HOSTILITIES AND BLOODSHED. 



an opet' fracas began. The Mormons drove off their opponents, 
and confiscated property, and burnt some houses, after driving 
women and children into the woods, where considerable suffering 
prevailed; — in one or two instances children were born of house- 
less and terror-stricken mothers. A company of militia was 
called together and were encamped on a small river, and were 
there attacked by a party of Mormons, and some killed ; they sup- 
posing the troops to be a mob marching to destroy their property. 

Complaints of these seditions were made to Governor Boggs, 
and he ordered out the State troops to enforce order upon all the 
citizens ; — even, if it was found necessary, to exterminate the 
obnoxious Mormons, who were presumed to be the fomenters of 
the discord. The principal leaders were secured, and a trial was 
had before Judge King; and Smith, Rigdon, and P. P. Pratt in- 
carcerated. For the evidence and proceedings of this trial, the 
testimony of citizens, dissenters, and Mormons, reference must be 
made to the official publication of the State and that of the United 
States Senate. We are here dealing with events, and leave every 
person curious to know the truth or falsity of the causes of this 
war, to form his own opinion. 

But in the account given by the Apostle Pratt (which is not 
there to be found) we have a picture of horrors and inhumanity 
toward his people which would surpass our belief, if we did not 
know that a lawless mob were the actors in the scenes, or an un- 
controlled, exasperated soldiery. There were too many authenti- 
cated facts that make the blood curdle as we contemplate them, to 
deny that foul injustice was often practised; — and the deeds of 
savage brutality, whose disgusting details we pass in silence, make 
us sigh that they could be enacted by American citizens. Pratt 
avers that the flesh of their martyred comrades was cooked and 
offered to the prisoners in jail for food. At How's mills, twenty 
of his brethren were lulled into fancied security by professions of 
friendship, and when defenceless in a log building at night, they 
were coolly shot, through the crevices; — and after the massacre, 
they found a lad of nine years of age, concealed under a forge, 
andj dragging him out, delibentely blew off the top of his head. 



EXPULSION OF THE MORMONS. 



Ill 



— tbe miscreant boasting of his manlj^ prowess^ and all dancing 
mth the exultation of fiends incarnate. 

The prisoners v/ere carried from one jail to another, and their 
trial for treason delayed; their sufferings greatly enhanced from 
the uncertainty which hung over the fate of their wives and 
children. At last these leaders escaped ; while on one of the 
journeys, the guard sank into a deep sleep after a drunken frolic- 
and thence they found their way to Illinois, to join those who had 
preceded them. 

The Mormons had been driven from the state. The sufferings 
of that defenceless multitude, whose arms and property had been 
surrendered, as they crossed the State to Commerce, on the 
Mississippi, over the bleak prairies, and amid the storms of wind 
and snow, in November, were most intense. The aged and the 
young, the sick and the delicate women, the infants, and even 
those born on the road, houseless and unsheltered, were to be seen, 
in that crowd of forlorn, persecuted, and unresisting exiles. The 
rivers were without bridges, the waters flowed with chilling anchor 
ice, the currents, swollen by recent rains, had to be forded or 
swum, as the delay of bridging would kill by starvation or cold. 
Thirty or more persons had been murdered, others were sinking 
under exposure, grief, and hardship ] and as one was relieved by 
death, a bark coffin would enclose him, and a wave of tbe prairie 
sea pass over the mortal remains, and the sad cortege move on. 
Families were scattered, widows with helpless children clinging to 
them, and piteously clamoring for food; hunger, want, and 
disease through all ranks — this was the exodus of a people under 
an inclement sky, from their homes of plenty and comfort. That 
fearful journey was made where fuel could scarcely be found to 
cook the scanty stores, and where cattle died of starvation, for 
they could not be trusted to range far for grass, and must be 
tethered at night, nor permitted leisure to graze by day, but convey 
along the starving pilgrims to a place of refuge. All that 
brotherly kindness can do, was exhibited then — the crust was 
shared with the first neighbor whose store was exhausted, the 
robust cheered the weak, and the hearts of all united in sympathy 



112 



THE MORMONS REACH THE MISSISSIPPI. 



But what have not those persecutors to answer for ? There 13 
One who hath said, vengeance is mine, I will repay/' and if he 
that steals must restore fourfold, surely he that causes a pang of 
human suffering, cannot expect less than a like retribution in the 
future of Providence. 

Twelve thousand persons arrived on the banks of the Mississippi 
in destitute plight ; their tale of distress touched the hearts of the 
Illinoisians, and they hospitably received them. Provisions and 
clothing were hastily gathered and freely bestowed — this generous 
conduct is a bright ray, piercing through the murky clouds of that 
dark tragedy. 

Let us reflect a moment on what has been presented before us. 
Can we blame a sad, revengeful remembrance of those times by 
the Mormons ? We may ask them to forgive — to forget, never. 
And has a remuneration been made them for the wholesale 
spoliations of those w^hose crime was laid in their mistaken view 
of the rights of conscience 1 We have heard of none. But we 
have heard that one appeared in Jackson County to sue out a writ 
of possession of his land, and the citizens collected and stamped 
him under their feet, until his bowels gushed out, and then buried 
him ; this was all the homestead he secured. Such exhibitions of 
justice do not satisfy the mountain brethren that purity and right 
prevail in Missouri — yet, afar oft, they are preparing memorials, 
praying permission to return, and fondly hope yet to possess the 
heart-beloved Zion. 

Those who misled the credulous multitude in the war should 
have been punished. After the first conflict, they declared the 
war must derive its support from their opponents, and consecrated 
their cattle, hogs, and honey to 'their own use, under the names of 
^'buffalo, and bear-meat, and olive oil." These contributions from 
the Gentiles were gathered by an armed band called the Fur 
Company, as indemnifications for losses sustained by the mobs. 
They forcibly drove out people, and inflicted some of the misery 
which they afterwards endured in their own exodus. We may 
admit that the rulers were corrupt, and ambitious of ruling thai 
part of the country — these could have been secured and punished. 



ll 



EFFECT OF PERSECUTION. 



113 



aud the innocent, deluded ones, saved from tbe awful miserj? which 
awaited them. To those surviving those times, a semblance of 
compensation can be made by giving them the cultivated lands 
of their mountain homes — it could only b-e a show of gift, for 
there they have well earned their comforts in toil and battle against 
Indian marauders. 

This expulsion of the Mormons from one State to another in 
the closing months of 1838, is here stated as an historical fact; 
and it may show that this century is not so much advanced in 
philanthropy, that it will tolerate error of opinion without 
Cjuestion, or that it seeks to correct it only by argument, and the 
enlightenment of general education. There is great need of 
progress in charity, and the knowledge of treating what is ridicu- 
lous by letting it fall into contempt without notice. Crime may 
be punished and restrained by what raises folly into wisdom in the 
estimation of thousands. 

This violence in Missouri gave a new impetus to Mormonism. 
The people were concentrated thereby, and unanimity of views and 
opinions again prevailed. The dissenters were driven away — the 
weak in faith were made strong, under the harangues of teachers who 
loudly proclaimed that so Christ and his Apostles were made to 
suffer.^' They were to pass through like tribulation. But some- 
thing more confirmed them. They had assumed the name and 
were included under the ban of extermination. After the storm 
arose, it was too late to evade the consequences ; — they could not 
recant and receive favor with the mob. No credit would be, or 
was given to defections made under such circumstances, — it was 
looked upon as a ruse in order to save their property, and they 
^\ere not trusted. Root and branch must be cleared away. 

Thus, every thing conspired to make them twofold more the 
children of Mormonism than before. And this, we observe, has 
been the case with several dissenters. They have gone back to 
the first love: — they feel a stigma rests on them for having once 
joined that belief, and their vanity is more powerful than their 
judgment. These brands from the burning'^ are received with 
open arms, for they show that other religious are unsatisfactory, 
10* 



SOME DEFECTIONS. 



and they are the proud trophies of victory of the new religion ; — 
no wonder that the unstable seek for peace, in a delusion that 
treats them so kindly. Even the most notorious, such as Rigdon 
and Cowdery, former members of the first dynasty, have been in- 
vited to return, we are informed. 

It is remarkable that the wife of the Prophet, '^Emma, the 
Elect Lady,'' according to his Revelation, and the first three wit- 
nesses to the Book of Mormon, who affirm that " an angel came 
down from heaven and laid the golden plates before their eyes'^ 
and that the voice of God declared the truth of them in their 
hearing ) also the chief of the Eight witnesses who declare with 
words of truth and soberness they handled them with their 
hands ; together with Martin Harris and the Editor of the Gospel 
Messenger, and some of the ablest advocates of the doctrines in 
earlier times, — have left the society, without apparently affecting 
the faith or enthusiasm of the later converts. It was when these 
men were leaving that the Danite band was formed to fan them, 
and keep their mouths closed, and others from deserting, — they 
were the fruits of peace and prosperity. 



CHAPTEE IV. 



SETTLEMENT AT NAUYOO. 

WiTEN tlie homeless starvino; multitudes had crossed the MisHi^ 
sippi, aud found solace iu Illinois^ the question of a new residence 
arose, and the site of the town of Commerce, in the elbow-bend 
of the river, was selected for a city, and lands purchased on the 
half-breed tract, in Iowa, opposite. The name given to the place 
was Nauvoo, The City of Beauty. The situation was offered to 
the Prophet by Dr. Gralland, the owner, who is the reputed author 
of a letter to Smith, setting forth the peculiar advantages of this 
point as a nucleus for his increasing colony. The plan for a city 
and temple is most ably set forth as a capital for a religious empire ; 
and that a commercial town would be well supported by the sur- 
rounding country, which is rich in agricultural resources. It is 
situated at the head of theDes Moines rapids, and beautiful prairies 
extend, like the undulating ocean, as far as the eye can reach, 
from the hio-hest ridfies, on all sides. On the rich delta of the 
Des Moi-nes and Father of Waters, and in Hancock county, another 

everlasting residence " for the saints, was consecrated. Soon the 
colonists changed the desert to an abode of plenty and richness. 
Gardens sprang up, as by niagic, decorated with the most beauti- 
ful flowers of the old and new world, whose seeds were brought as 
mementoes from former homes, by the converts that flocked to the 
new stake of Zion. Broad streets were soon fenced, houses erected, 
and the busy hum of industry heard in the marts of commerce : 
— the steamboat unladed its stores and passengers, and departed 
for a fresh supply of merchandize, — fields waved with the golden 
harvests, and cattle dotted the rolling hills. A temple site was 
chosen on the brow of the bluff" overlooking the lower town, which 

(115) 



116 



THE TEMPLE BEGUN. 



part of the city was on the sloping meadow in the bend below. 
The pattern was given to the prophet by his angel, and-all the 
details explained orally. A gentile architect was employed to 
draft it by dictation. He soon found that it was complicated and 
broke the rules of his art; but notwithstanding his difficultie-s, 
Joseph insisted that the tout ensf:mMe must be right; and, true 
enough, the Lord's design^' was at last pronounced correct. 
Kevelations were freely vouchsafed, and they were informed that 
their situation was much better than what it was in Pandemoni- 
um ; and they must bear the late chastisement like obedient chil- 
dren. AH saints were loudly called to pay in their tithes of time 
and money — and one revelation, especially, told the kings and 
queens to become nursing parents to the church, and bring in their 
gold, their silver, and all precious stones, to build and adorn the 
temple. Minute transactions were governed by these revelations; 
— some of them have been printed, but many more remain in the 
manuscript, and are of no further use than historical records for 
preserving memorials of that time, and actions of that people. 

Flourishing centres of dense settlements sprung up in the vicin- 
ity of Nauvoo, and the accessions and exertions of emigrants 
enlarged their borders. Not alone to these was the increase con- 
fined. Horse-thieves and house-breakers, — robbers and villains 
gathered there to cloak their deeds in mystery, who, caring nothing 
for religion, could take the appearance of baptism, and be among, 
but not of them. Speculators came in, and bought lots, with the 
hope of great remuneration, as the colony increased. The latter 
class, unwilling to pay tithes, soon fell into disrepute, and when 
proper time had elapsed for conversion without effect, measures 
were taken to oust them. A proper sum would be offered for 
their improvements and land, and if not accepted, then petty an- 
noyances were resorted to. One of these was called " whittling 
off." Three men would be deputed and paid for their time to take 
their jack-knives and sticks, — down-east Yankees of course, — and 
sitting down before the obnoxious man's door, begin their whittling. 
When the man came out they would stare at him, but say nothing. 
If he went to the market, they followed and whittled. Whatt^ver 



PROGRESS or XAUYOO. 



117 



taunts, curseSj or other provoking epithets were applied to them., 
no notice would be taken, no word spoken in return, no laugh on 
their faces. The jeers and shouts of street urchins made the wel- 
kin ring, but deep silence pervaded the whittlers. Their leerish 
look followed him every where, from morning dawn to dusky 
eve/' When he was in-doors, they sat patiently down, and assi- 
duously performed their jack-knife duty. Three days are said to 
have been the utmost that human nature could endure of this 
silent annoyance; the man came to terms, sold his possessions for 
what he could get, or emigrated to parts unknown. 

Though the banks of the river at Nauvoo are dry, and the city 
site rises in an abrupt slope to a commanding eminence on the 
prairie level, the marshes below exhaled a miasm that brought on 
its breath the ague fiend/' and much distressed those who had 
been exposed on the wintry march, and the new comers, whilst 
acclimating. During the process of draining the marshes, and in 
four years, one third of their number perished. This is another= 
charge laid to their persecutors by the later converts, who say 
they forced them to take up their residence where no one was 
expected to be able to live, and allowed them to remain, only to 
see them perish. But numbers survived the agues, and the place 
was assuming a healthy, pleasant aspect. The State favored the 
exiles ; charters were obtained for the city, with peculiarly favor- 
able privileges — the Nauvoo Legion was incorporated, and the 
arms of the State loaned, in which they were well drilled, and 
became a standing army, with the prophet as Lieutenant General 
— the chiefs were incorporated a company for building the temple, 
and other companies for a grand boarding-house, the result of a 
revelation, in which the prophet and family were provided with an 
elegant suite of apartments, free of expense ^'/or evcr'^ — for a 
university, and for manufactures. 

General conferences were semi-annually held for awhile, and 
missionaries appointed to Palestine, Africa, and Europe, and 
to each congressional district of the home country. Tlie policy 
was, and always has been, to select the ambitious, the uneasy, or 
the too enquiring and knowing ones, and, under Divine command^ 



118 



MORMON MISSIONARIES. 



send them to carry the revived gospel to the eods of the earth, in 
order to give them a chance to let off the steam of discontent. 
Especially it is the policy to put on this duty inquisitive minda 
who are diving too deeply into the mysteries of their faith, and 
are becoming weak in the same/' Such usually receive the 
command ^^from on high/' to buckle on the armor, as a particular 
compliment of Heaven — and, flattered by the notice of the great 
President above, accept the commission, and go forth to battle 
manfully. They become oftentimes the most zealous advocates, 
for, being thrown on the defensive, they seek for arguments to 
sustain what just before they were disposed to overthrow; and 
disputation and controversy confirm them wonderfully in the truth 
of the doctrine, and their power to confound the wise and the 
unwise/' It is the surest way to make full Mormons of the 
wavering, by enlisting their pride, and engaging their attention on 
the defensive side of the question. They soon look into their 
own souls for the proof that they are on the side of truth, as their 
convictions go with their desire of proselyting. ^^We know it, for 
the evidence is revealed within us," they will say — the interior 
proof is all in all, when the historical or theological opposition is 
found too strong to be met with argument. 

Missionaries are sent with all the promptness of military orders, 
a three days' notice for a three years' absence from family and 
business not unfrequently being all that is given. Families are 
cared for by the Presidency and bishops. Three hundred were 
chosen at one conference. Previous to stiirting, they were 
assembled to receive the orders of Joseph. He preached a fervid 
sermon, that stimulated their pride of conquering difiiculties 
without scrip or purse. One of that band, still well-affected to 
the society, though differing on one point from its teaching, related 
to the writer some parts of the discourse. One main point 
insisted on was, that spiritual wifery" was to be most pointedly 
denied ; and that they taught that one man should live in chaste 
fidelity with one woman in conjugal relationship. In the dark 
concerning the revelation allowing polygamy, he sincerely declared 
that but one wife was ever known to any of his brethren. While 



SPIRITUAL ^VTFERY. 



119 



zenlouslj preachiag in the city of New York, he was thought 
worthy, by the Apostle Lyman, to be let into the secret of the 
" blessings of Jacob/' the privileges of the Saints. Called aside 
one day by the President of the Stake, he was told that God had 
always rewarded his distinguished saints with special privileges, 
such as would be wrong for sinners, but by revelation made harm- 
less to the good. As an instance he would cite Jacob, David, and 
Solomon, who had many wives allowed them. In these last days, 
also, the like had been accorded to Joseph Smith and others; and 
having now full confidence in his holiness, the priest could have the 
same privilege of adding to the household of the faith many chil- 
dren, by choosing additions to the present wife. The priest says he 
was utterly astounded, but, on reflection^ chose to dissemble, and say 
he would consider the matter. In the evening he was invited to 
witness ^^a sealing" of several couples, at a large boarding-house. 
In the front parlor the ceremony, like a marriage, was performed ; 
and, as each pair was finished" by the priest, they retired 
through the folding doors, and thus to their own apartments. The 
guest was so shocked, that he retired to his home, and though he 
never took any open part against the "church of new privileges, 
he was denounced as a deserter in their papers, and the public 
cautioned against him as a defamer. Strange to say, he was, at 
the time of our interview, contemplating rejoining his people in 
the mountains. 

POIiY^^AYY. 

It was during this peaceful time, about 1841-2, that the 
rrvelntion allowing to the High Priests and chiefs of their 
hierarchy as many wives as they could support, and declaring it a 
duly for those eligible to the priesthood, to take one wife at least, 
was said to be given. In vain, it is reported, proved the 
opposition of Emma, The Elect Lady — in vain, also, her threat 
of another husband in retaliation; the only consolation received 
was, that a prophet must obey the Lord, " he would be obedient 
to the heavenly vision." The story of "spiritual wives," or 
rather that the wives were held in common, and those whose 



POLYGAMY CERTAIN. 



husbands were not in full fellowship with the churchy like them- 
selveSj were sealed to the elders, probably arose from the published 
doctrine that a woman cannot be saved without a man to take her 
into the heavenly kingdom. It is even yet asserted, we believe, 
by the Morjnonish, and opposers of this part of " Relevation,'' 
(for there are many of both sexes denouncing it, without being 
cut off, because it is not yet a publicly proclaimed doctrine,) that 
certain women are sealed to high dignitaries; but, for ourselves, 
we know nothing of the truth or falsity of the charge : we can 
only say that all marriage relations that came under our notice 
were most purely correct in appearance; and that all wives in 
Utah showed a devotion and alacrity in domestic affairs and family 
duties, that would promote the harmony of the world, and make 
many a heavy heart beat for joy, if universal. 

That polygamy existed at Nauvoo, and is now a matter scarcely 
attempted to be concealed among the Mormons, is certain. Else- 
where are given their reasons for its justification. It is a thing 
of usual and general conversation in the mountains, and we often 
heard one of the Presidency spoken of with his twenty-eight 
wives; another with forty-two, more or less;'' and the third 
called an old bachelor, because he has only a baker's dozen. It 
is neither reproach nor scandal; no one is present to see the 
ceremony of sealing but the priestly clerk and parties ; therefore, 
if a Grentile asks one if all the women in his neighbor's house, 
with prattling babes, are the landlord's wives, the answer is, I 
know nothing about it^ and a^Gund to no man's family relations." 



CHAPTER V. 



POLITICAL MOVEME:sTS — MURDER OF JOSEPH. 

The Mormons now boasted of having a hundred thousand 
persons in the faith throughout the States; and this accounts for 
the silence of the press concerning them, as their vote was a 
balancing power. They would go in a body on political questions. 
Smith visited Washington, and reports his interview with the 
President to have concluded with this emphatic assertion of Mr. 
Van Buren ; Sir, your cause is just, but I can do nothing for 
you.*^ In view of the approaching election of ^44, letters were 
written to the prominent candidates, and answers elicited, which - 
Joseph pronounced unsatisfactory, for no one pledged to coerce 
Missouri to restore Zion and their lands to them, as Latter-Day 
Saints. Then the prophet sent forth his " Yiews on Government," 
advocated a National Bank, denounced all punishment for deser- 
tions in the army or navy, throwing the soldier on his honor 
alone ; would pardon out every convict from the penitentiaries ; 
curtail government offices and pay ; reduce the number of repre- 
sentatives; and, in short, make every thing harmonious and 
prosperous, by declaring that all were free to try honesty^' and 
"love^^ in their dealings, and become a brotherhood. Joseph was 
put in nomination for the Presidency; and the Mormons assert, 
that had he lived for the next trial after, he would have been 
elected. The opportunity was not given. A dark day was 
approaching. Their neighbors became dissatisfied and jealous. 
Their property disappeared, and causes tried in the Nauvoo courts 
went always against them. No Mormon could be brought to 
justice, they said. Political aspirations were alleged also ; thai 
they aspired to rule the State, and, under a spiritual leader, set 
the laws at defiance. It was industriously circulated that thieve?, 
11 (121) 



122 



TROUBLES IN NAUVOO. 



"bogus makers/^ and robbers, T^ere harbored, protected, and 
assisted by the leaders. Cattle and utensils disappeared from the 
neighboring farms. Traces of stolen property were -ibtained at 
Nauvoo. 

But, more than all, intestine quarrels brought on the crisis of 
affairs. Many influential and talented persons, finding themselves 
deceived both in the sanctity of the prophet, and in advancing 
their temporal fortunes, deserted his standard, and denounced him 
for licentiousness, drunkenness, and tyranny. Women impeached 
him of attempted seduction ; which his apology that it was merely 
to see if they were virtuous, could not satisfy. Criminations 
brought back recriminations against certain men. The Wasp, 
Joseph^s paper, lashed the dissenters with bitter hatred. The 
dissenters established a counter battery in the i]xpositor, and 
published one number, detailing the most offensive debaucheries 
on the part of the prophet and his principal friends. 

The city council was convened, and eleven members of the 
twelve voted the Expositor a nuisance. A party immediately 
destroyed the press, scattering the type in the streets, and 
burning all of the edition it could find. Those engaged in the 
work repaired to head-quarters, and were complimented by Joseph 
and Hyrum for doing their duty to the Lord, being further assured 
that they should be rewarded. 

Writs were issued against the mob leaders and abettors, but 
they were immediately set at liberty hy Habeas Corpus, a procerus 
often resorted to, wherebj^ the outsiders could never bring such to 
justice. The officer then procured a writ in the county, and 
summoned a posse to enforce the law — but the people and troops 
in Nauvoo prevented it, and when the militia were called out, 
Joseph, as mayor and commanding general of the Nauvoo Legion, 
declared the city under martial law. The Governor of .the State 
was appealed to, who repaired to Carthage, the county seat, and 
ordered out three companies of the State militia, and for a time a 
collision spemed inevitable. The Grovernor sent an agent to the 
Smiths, assuring their personal safety, and called upon them to meet 
him in conference. Joseph sent two men. Bernhisel and Taylor, 



THE MORMON LEADERS IMPRISONED. 123 

to confer with Governor Ford — but the latter despatched an oS&cer 
with the militia to arrest the prophet and patriarch. These 
crossed over the Mississippi into Iowa, to watch events, keeping 
up by boat a correspondence with the council. Finding that 
fcheir own people were being incensed at their desertion, by advioe 
of council it was concluded best to obey the summons of the 
Governor, their friends feeling sure of acquittal on trial. Accord- 
ingly they came back and started for Carthage, but, on the way, 
met a party with an order to disband the Legion, and deliver up 
the State arms. They returned with the troops, and the order 
was duly executed. 

They now repaired to Carthage, and were indicted for treason, 
and lodged in jail, with two others, Dr. Richards and John Tay- 
lor, of the Apostles. The dissenters and those who had suffered 
loss of property were greatly exasperated against them ; and those 
whose families were dishonored, or attempts upon them made, 
fcwore dire vengeance. But the Governor, seeing things apparently 
quiet, RSud the leaders safely secured, discharged the troops, and 
went to Nauvoo and addressed the people, advising submission to 
the course of the laws, and to demean themselves as good citizens, 
and justice should be done to all parties. 

On the 27th of June, 1844, he started back, and on the way 
met an express, informing him that a horrible massacre of the 
i Smiths had been committed by the mob, in whom the spirit of 
j revenge had been roused, and satiated in blood. The Governor, 
I fearing that the Mormons would at once destroy the inhabitants, 
advised them to evacuate the place, and putting General Doming 
in command of the few troops that could be raised, retired forth- 
I with to Quincy, to await the sequel of events. 
I It appears that when the troops were disbanded, many individ- 
I uals conspired with other citizens to attack the jail and take jus- 
|i tice into their own hands. Early in the day they assaulted the 
ij door of the room in which the prisoners were incarcerated. 

Richards and Taylor, lying on the floor, made a stretch across the 
j room, the feet of one against the shoulders of the other, and kept 
i the door from fully opening. Guns were thmst in and dischar^-ed^ 



124 



JOSEPH SMITH MURDERED. 



and Joseph^ with a revolver, returned two shots, hitting one man 
m the elbow. A ball struck Hyrum the patriarch, and he fell ex 
claiming, I am killed I — to which Joseph replied, brother 
Hjrum V' The prophet then threw up the window, and, in the 
act of leaping through was killed by balls fired from the outside, 
saying as he fell, " Lord, my Grod/' The people in the hall 
forced into the room and wounded Taylor ; the other escaped 
*^ without a hole in his robe.^^ 

Thus ended the mortal career of one whose true biography has 
yet to be written. He founded a dynasty which his death ren- 
dered more secure, and sent forth principles that take fast hold 
on thousands in all lands; and the name of Great Martyr of the 
Ninteenth century, is a tower of strength to his followers. He 
lived fourteen years and three months after founding a society with 
six members, and could boast of having one hundred and fifty 
thousand ready to do his bidding when he died; all of whom re- 
garded his word as the voice from Heaven. Among his disciples 
he bears a character for talent, uprightness, and purity, far surpass- 
ing all other men with whom they ever were acquainted, or whose 
biography they have read. But few of these admirers were cog- 
nizant of other than his prophetic career, and treat with scornful 
disdain all that is said in disparagement of his earlier life. TVith 
those who knew him in his youth, and have given us solemn tes- 
timony, he is declared an indolent vagabond, an infamous liar of 
consummate impudence. He is regarded by the Gentiles who 
saw him in the last few years of successful power, to have been a 
man of unbridled lust, and engaged with the counterfeiting and 
robbing bands of the Great Yalley, but these charges have never 
been substantiated — and dissenters charge him with breaking the 
whole decalogue. 

His mind was an active one, and he possessed elements of an 
engaging kind ; without them he could not have held men so long 
and so forcibly. In this, he has compeers among those who 
have played a similar part on the credulity of mankind, and 
claimed divine mission. Like them, he was bold in assertion of 
his " truths and hurled anathemas upon all who did not acknow- 



CHARACTER OF SMITH. 



125 



ledge his pretensions. He found many to listen^ who would then 
consider and examine awhile^ and ask themselves the question, 
^^what, after all^ if this should be true?'' — and in that douht lay 
their danger, for he that doubteth is damned'' when the true 
light is shining around him. The wonder that strikes us is, the time 
and the manner in which this new doctrine is sought to be estab- 
lished, and its rapid success. No one can doubt that there was 
genius, sagacity, and intuitive insight into the characters of men, 
which was operated with from the time of inducing Harris to as- 
sist in publishing his bible. From the moment that person was 
duped, and became bound by his cupidity to the issue of the book 
from the press, was the struggle of mental power. Next, when 
it was found that the work would not be a lucrative object, what 
but transcendent ability could have controlled the mind of the ver- 
satile, eloquent, and methodical Eigdon, and used his talents to 
organize a church system and put it into complete operation, which 
no follower has dared to amend? And the most bitter trials did 
not daunt him ; he looked calmly on the misery of thousands 
about him, in the fires of persecution, and still moved on, unflinch- 
ing, till at last he dared a ruthless mob to his death, which show- 
ed a determination to ride the whirlwind and direct the storm, 
regardless of the human suffering that might be endured. 

The anecdotes of his eccentricities and manners are household 
themes in the mountains, and time and distance are embellishing 
them with all the virtues of the true hero. They love to relate 
to listening friends and children how the prophet Joseph would 
strip off the mask of hypocrisy — how he would meet a new 
I convert, bringing his long-faced piety from the other denomina- 
I tions, and challenge a wrestling match in the streets, nor let off 
' the sanctimonious and surprised fellow until he had shown him 
that his athletic reputation was not a sham, by leaving him flat in 
the dust — and to all he tauoht that his was a lauo-bter-lovino;- 
cheerful religion. And how another, coming with charitable 
j 2eal to the prophet, would be requested to lend for the temple all 
his money, and then be noticed no more than other strangers ; the 
poor destitute being obliged to shoulder spade and axe, and labc-r 
11* 



126 



EFFECT OF SMITH's DEATH. 



in poverty, until he would deeainp or be proved faithful. If h« 
stood the test for a few months, he would suddenly be called to 
head-quarters, and eligible lots assigned him, and some position 
given in which he could earn his bread in comfort. 

That he had become politically as well as religiously ambitious, 
is apparent from his letters on governmental policy. By establish- 
ing "stakes^^ in various places, he could hope to hold the balance 
of power between the two great parties, and ultimately force one 
to help his own people to place him in the highest office in the 
nation. It is evident^ that had he been permitted to colonize in 
Missouri, in a few years the control of the State must have 
passed into his hands. After the expulsion, all his movements 
and sentiments were tending toward regaining that lost section, 
and his credit with the people depended on fulfilling the prophecy 
concerning Zion. It is a cardinal point in the preaching of his 
successor, and in view of having to fight for it, that there is still 
kept up the drilling of the Legion ^ and exercises in military 
tactics, until there is in that community the material for the best 
partisan troops in the world. The mantle of the modern assumed 
Elijah has fallen on his kindred Elisha, whose ambition, though 
not as wide, has the same determined purpose of dominion as that 
of Joseph the Seer. 

His death by violence, and by his enemies, was opportune for 
the support of the system he sought to establish. He had arrived 
at that point in the revolution which he led, when the least delay 
would have caused its waves to flow over and engulf him. New 
things and new light were constantly expected by those whose , 
credulity was the measure of their faith — they were tauorht to|- 
look for principles according as they admitted and acted by them. 
Hence the immense strides in the last year toward pantheism and 
materialism of the Deities. And aspiring men were also bringing 
forward revelations which they were not content should be attri- 
buted to the inspiration of Beelzebub. Eigdon had again estab-i 
lished his chain of communication with the angels if the unseen 
world — Bishop had accumulated large folios of enlightened 
" table-talk with the spirits unseen, and Strang had found him | 



smith's successor. 



127 



self commissioned a King of Saints, and felt the divine inflatua 
within J and the numerous contradictions in the revelations of the 
prophet, though explained on the principle that God gave accord* 
ing to altered circumstance s, threw doubt on the prophet's own. 
The endeavor to apply this to the relation of the sexes, and make 
that innocent which all the enlightened world considered, wrong, 
by merely his assertion that thus saith the Lord,'' staggered the 
faith of the virtuous who were not too blinded to reflect or think for 
themselves. This it was that commenced the quarrel which ended 
in his arrest and death. 

He lived long enough for his fame, and died when he could 
just be called a martyr. He had become too violent and impa- 
tient, to control, for a long time, the multitude — he could begin, 
but not conduct, successfully, a revolution. In this respect, he 
contrasts remarkably with his successor in the Seership of the 
Saints. The latter could never be a martyr. His prudence and 
foresight have been shown, under the most trying circumstances, 
and in cool calculation of the future he is pre-eminent, and plans 
with cautious policy to meet all the exigencies before him. Policy 
is a word little known in the vocabulary of the first prophet, and 
is the most frequent in that of the present one. It galls the more 
simple-hearted ones however, and they sigh for the bold attitude 
of the first Presidency, and feel derelict to the duties of their di- 
vine mission by yielding at all to the political interference of the 
general government — waiting impatiently for the signal to march 
back to Zion — yet, on their principles of obeying ^'counsel/' 
restraining themselves to yield a temporary submission. 



BRIGHAM YOUNG ELECTED. 

The murder of their prophet exasperated the people of Nauvoo. 
They were ready, and a vast majority determined, on immediate 
war to the knife, with all engaged in that horrid traged}^ cr who- 
ever might come to abet them. A few more sagacious minds per- 
ceived the daoger of such a course, and began skilfully to prevent 
the utter ruin of their hopes, likely to result from open hos- 



12S 



THE CLAIMS 01 RIGDON. 



on the stand, and talked 
:^ : streets. The great 
a i-j.-:z i^ struggle, that going 
KeTenge was deep in every 
there was interpreted into the 
^ made audible in the terrible 
- murderers. The "time to 



ies had started, and 
ning after, the 
^ or gathering 
ice of hea- 



tility to the state. The L ^ 
with the clubs c '"t 't . :.: : 
drum was beating ari-s, I: 
en in the breasts of the ;:ia:'.-rnt. 
heart, and the bursting : t nt 
voice of the H:"!v Sriri: ; : : ' 
curses p:urri , ; . 

fight. ' was, by most, supposed to l 
w-re interposed by the influential : 
rendered and a new organization 
chosen. The day passed off and : 
WI S h ^ bosomed for the men : 
CGngr -gi:::n was early collected at 
place. The chief Apostles promi=- 
van upon their enemies, but that ti 
f:r the vials ef wrath to emptv the: 
It tar }:est:lea:e. the fire, and the - 

not divided."^ and. among the songs c: Z:a. 
worshipping a.^ — ■; h'e^. are the elegy and 
and Hvrum. the ihaitvrs for their £aith, ba 
The struggle fiT the le-aletaaip, the Se 

revelation, hv wh::a he was conta_?a;, ' 7 :'. t:,:: .v;.eeh V::::::a. 
and if shr a:^ t haia arV :: - at td^ -_:aae. J: aies 

J. Straa^ ::„:ea::ea i:e tae ahor ;i de- , t^:'. dt:-e:'. ^rttrrs 
over th- :,.t:e?.-ra p ataetd ^;^a::ahrr, a — a:a:^ _a.t ae -laili 
be the successor :a the e-ent : :" Jasephd Ir.hd, L .a tae cdlege 
^f the Twelve haa cti^er aicWi. aaa a vthr the ia;.jeca I^ej 
declared that definite instructions, and the last will and testament 
of Joseph, had been delivered to them in secret council. It re- 
Toked all former designations and devolved the choice upon them. 



ai all their attenti :n. The 



in the Mormtn 

r J-eoa 

^ :::h:.er re- 
He 

:ad Ht .-re a 



BRIGHAM YOUNG. 



Under the management of • their sagacious chief, they elected the 
Peter of the Apostles, Brigham Young, to the responsible station. 

This man, with a mien of the most retiring modesty and diffi- 
dence in ordinary intercourse in society, holds a spirit of ardent 
feeling and great shrewdness ; and when roused in debate, or upon 
the preacher's stand, exb.iHta a boldness of speech and grasp of 
thought that awes and enchains with intense interest — controlling, 
soothing, or exasperating, at pleasure, the multitudes that listen to 
his eloquence. His title among the Saints is, " The lion of the 
Lord.'' 

This enthronement drove Rigdon with a party to Pennsylvania, 
where in a short time his influence vanished and the band dis- 
persed. Strang founded a city on the prairies of Wisconsin and 
had a numerous colony — he ultimately removed to^ Beaver 
island, in Michigan lake, and assumed the title of King of the 
Saints, where the small kingdom still exists. These bodies and 
their leaders were excommunicated by the great majority under 
the proper Seer — as was also William Smith, another competitor 
for the throne, and a party in Texas headed by Lyman White. 



CHAPTER VL 



THE EXPULSION FROM NAUVOO. 

We have one more sad and fearful tale to tell about the Mor- 
mons ere their fortunes brightened. The mobocratic spirit did not 
expire when it destroyed the great leader. Threats and demon- 
strations clearly proved, that their present abode, which had been 
made lojely by unheard-of exertions, must be abandgned. The 
monster conflagrations on Green Plains cast a funereal glare on the 
spires of Nauvoo. The present venerable patriarch, uncle of the 
prophet Joseph, in prophetic vision announced that the whole peo- 
ple must retire to the wilderness, to grow into a multitude aloof 
from the haunts of civilization. 

This matter was taken into consideration by Brigham and high 
council. The result was, that they would move as fast as possible 
across Iowa to the Missouri, and into the Indian country in the 
vicinity of Council Bluffs. Speculators flocked in, and offered 
nominal prices for what they significantly hinted would very soon 
be taken for nothing, if the offers were rejected. Houses, lots, 
and such goods as could not be moved, were sold by many in the 
fall of '44 and winter of '45; and several parties set out on 
the dreary journey early the following spring. Ox-carts and 
mule teams, loaded with all sorts of furniture, intermingled with 
women and children, wended their way slowly along on miry 
tracks, and crossed the swollen streams — fuel and grass scanty — 
but the spirits of all unbroken, save the sick and helpless. Close- 
ly bound together by common dangers and a common faith, they 
performed with alacrity their duties, and sympathy made the 
dreary journey one of social life. Their mirthfulness would be 
excited by little incidents, and even misfortunes were turned into 

(130) 



PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. 



jokes, as helping hands lent their aid to right a broken wheel or 
upset wagon. At the halting places, the spinning-wheel would be 
taken down and yarn spun to keep the knitting-needles going when 
riding during the day — and cloth made from wool sheared after 
the journey begun. At some places land was broken up and 
planted with seed, and a family or two left to rear a crop for those 
who were to follow in autumn. The lowing herd accompanied, 
and the milch kine yielded the nourishing beverage, and butter 
was made by the jolting of the wagons as they travelled along. 

Still, the work continued unabated on the temple, for they 
were commanded to dedicate it before leaving the city of Beauty. 
It was the work of their hearts ; each person owned a share of 
the noble pile, for his hands had labored on it, his tithes were 
expended there, and the ladies had contributed their ornaments to 
forward the sacred edifice. The mob became impatient of delay, 
and would not believe the Mormons sincere in the stipulated 
move. As the corn-fields began to ripen, the rabble collected, it 
is said, to the number of two thousand, and there w^ere only three 
hundred of the old legion to defend the place against them. For 
three days an irregular fight went on, the assailants taking 
advantage of the high waving corn to conceal their approaches. 
The defenders nobly stood their ground, and drove them back at 
all points, and obtained a truce until spring; and then set 
diligently to work to complete the architectural ornaments, the 
holy emblems, and the angel on the lofty spire with his gospel 
trump, to prepare the sacred temple for the last act assigned them 
by "revelation.'^* 

When completed in all its minutia3, the consecrators were 
.ealled. From the surrounding country, and from parties far 
advanced on their prophetic journej^, priests, elders, and bishops 
stole into the city as dusty travellers, and were suddenly metamor- 
phosed to dignity by their robes of office; and one day, from 



* I am informed by Captain S. Eastman, the accomplished scliolar 
And artist, that the angel and trump are in Barnum's Museum, New 
York city. 



J32 



NAUVOO TEMPLE DEDICATED. 



high noon to the shade of night, was there a scene of rejoicing 
and solemn consecration of the beautiful edifice, on which so much 
anxiety and thought had lately been expended. There stood the 
Mormon temple in simple beauty, the pride of the valley. Tlie 
great altar hung with festoons of flowers and green wreaths ; the 
baptistic laver resting on twelve elaborately carved oxen, decorated 
with the symbolic glories, celestial, telestial, and terrestrial; the 
chaunt was sung, the prayers offered up, and the noble building, 
resplendent with lights of lamp and torches, solemnly dedicated to 
their own God. This done, and the walls were dismantled of 
ornaments and the symbols of their faith, the key-words of the 
mysteries, and lettered insignia were all removed with haste, 
except the sun, moon, and stars, carved in stones of the walls, and 
the temple forsaken, to be profaned and trodden down by the 
Gentiles/' A few brief hours were given to this brilliant 
pageant, and during this festive, joyous scene, a spectator would 
have supposed the actors expected that house to be their own for 
ever. There is something truly affecting in the contemplation of 
that devotional offering of so fine a temple, and then leaving it 
unscathed to the hand of their enemies. 

From this time all defence ceased, and their enemies rested satis- 
fied that the Mormons had decided to sell their possessions. 
Arrangements for surrender and departure were quickly made. 
Company after company followed the pioneers to the white Mis- 
souri; and many, crossing over in early summer, turned up the rich, 
but pestilential prairie sod, to prepare a harvest for autumn, and 
await the last of the trains. During that summer the plague and 
fever raged violently, and its ravages in the great bottom, on Indian 
and white men, were fearful. Winter approached — the tent and 
wagon body, with its hooped canvas, was exchanged for caves dug 
in the sides of the hills, and covered with logs, r.eeds, or cloth. The 
scanty fuel gave but little warmth to ward off the cold, made more 
searching from the piercing winds that howled over the delta 
prairies of the Missouri and Nebraska. Then came the ague, the 
rheumatism, and the scurvy, the terrible concomitants of fatigue, 
exposure, and scanty fare. Numbers died, and were buried in 



THE MORMONS RAISE A BATTALION. 



13B 



the rich alluvion. Awful as was that winter and spring, a cheerful 
heart and countenance was on all sides — a revelation gave permis- 
sion to dance, to sing, and enjoy the swelling music from the 
excellent band that accompanied all their journeys. 

Let us revert to the summer. A city was laid out, and soon 
the streets were dusty with the tread of busy industry. A 
printing-press issued the Frontier Gruardian, the able exponent of 
their doctrines still. The name assumed was Kane, in honor of 
their guest and eloquent defender, whose historical oration on these 
dark periods of their fortunes, does equal honor to his charitable 
heart and intelligence — a sketch, however, of the epic kind, replete 
with poetical ornament and fervor. 

It was at this time, in July, that a battalion of 520 men was 
recruited among them for the Mexican war. The government, 
knowing their intention to settle in California, would thus do them 
a favor by bearing a part of the expense of removal, test and 
demonstrate their fidelity, and show the reports of their enemies^ 
concerning leagues with the Indians, to be false. The people, 
however, thought this only another persecution, yet submitted, to 
prove their patriotism. Enfeebled by disease, and scattered, it 
was an enormous effort. The elders called the congregation, and 
asked for recruits. The unmarried were ordered to volunteer — 
then fathers and husbands were called to leave their families, and 
the elders declared, if necessary, they would shoulder the musket. 
In three days the battalion was organized, and a merry ball, from 
^*noon to dewy eve,'' was given, in holiday attire, by young men 
and maidens, joined in by reverend priests and matrons. The 
warriors were blessed in holy convocation, a prophecy made that 
they should conquer the country without a drop of blood shed in 
battle; and the battalion departed "in the name of the Lord.'' 

Men were sent to the mountains, to the heads of the Missouri 
branches, and to California, to spy out the land, and the Calebs 
and Joshuas brought such a report of the Great Salt Lake Valley, 
that it was chosen for another " everlastino; abode.'' 

In the spring of 1847, a pioneer party of 143 men proceeded 
CO open the way; and the host, in parties of tens, fifties, and 
12 



134 



THE GREAT SALT LAKE VALLEY REACHED. 



hundreds, followed. This was an admirable system, and baffled 
the thievish desire of the Sioux, Crows, and Shoshones. A captaia 
was over each division, but the captains of hundreds had the 
supervision of the smaller bands. A strict discipline of guard 
and march was observed. But the drain of the battalion threw 
he burden of toil much upon the women. Females drove teams 
of several yoke of oxen a thousand miles. A man could take 
three teams by the help of a woman and lad — he driving the 
middle one, and stepping forward to assist over the creeks with 
the foremost, and then bring up the rear ones — and at the camps 
unyoke and "hitch up^' for his feebler coadjutors. Thus they 
wound along their weary way, at ten and fifteen miles a day — 
forded, or bridged, and ferried over, the Loup, the Horn, and 
Platte rivers on the plains, and the swollen streams of the Bear, 
and rushing Weber, in the mountains. 

The first glimpse of the great valley on the road was from the 
summit of the second mountain, sixteen miles distant. As each 
team rose upon the narrow table, the delighted pilgrims saw the 
white salt beach of the Great Lake glistening in the never-clouded 
sunbeam of summer — and the view down the open gorge of the 
mountains, divided by a single conical peak, into the long-toiled- 
for vale of repose, was most ravishing to the beholders. Few 
such ecstatic moments are vouchsafed to mortals in the pilgrimage 
of life, when the dreary past is all forgotten, and the soul revels 
in unalloyed enjoyment, anticipating the fruition of hope. A few 
moments are allotted to each little party to gaze, to admire and to 
praise — and they begin to descend a steep declivity, amid the 
shades of a dense poplar grove, and for twenty-four hours are de- 
siring to renew their pleasurable sensations on emerging from the 
frowning kanyon into the paradisaical valley, and long-sought-for 
Lome. 

The journey was ended, but this gave no repose — industry con- 
tinued: In five days a field was consecrated, fenced, ploughed, and 
planted, and seeds were germinating in the moisture of irrigating 
streams and the genial warmth of the internal heat of the earth, 



FACE OF THE COUNTRY. 



135 



here brought to their uotice by the thermal waters gushing froiii 
a thousand springs. 

Though cramped in their means^ and feeble as they were, 
nothing of interest on that long journey was left unobserved or 
unrecorded. Parties were directed to scour the vicinity of the 
road; and report on springs^ timber^ grass^ and other objects of in- 
terest. An ingenious and accurate road-measurer was attached to 
a wagon, and a person designated to note the distances from point 
to pointj and every feasible camping-ground was marked down — 
and a Directory for every rod of the road, admirably arranged and 
filled with useful information^ was published for the use of those 
■pvwho should follow. The self-taught mathematician and learned 
apostle Orson Pratt, noted for latitude and longitude. The valley 
of the Platte is found to be almost an unbroken plane, whose 
slope is so gentle that the eye detects neither ascent nor descent, 
and from the Black Hills to its mouth is almost a straight line, 
and is perhaps the most remarkable trace, and finest natural road,^ 
in the world. The flat, or bottom, begins to spread at the hills, 
gradually from a point to ten or fifteen miles in width ; and lies 
between blufi's, whose height is the origand plane or surface, out 
of which the river has excavated its valley. Few clumps of trees 
are along the banks ; but the islands, secure from the prairie fires, 
are covered with groves of Cottonwood. Irrigation would make 
valuable the level meadows, and to the north and south, pastures 
can be found covered with nutritious grasses, whose limits would 
be the range of the shepherds from the watering river. 

Portions of the Platte have the appearance of shallow lal^es, 
two or three miles wide ] and in summer the stream is divided into 
thousands of currents by the sand islands. Its volume increases as 
" you ascend toward its sources ] the absorption by the soil and rapid 
evaporation on so wide a surface diminish the flow, while but few 
tributaries enter below the Sweetwater. What is here said of this 
river applies to the mountain streams generally ] they attain theii 
full size where the rivulets are collected into one at the mountain 
base, and, in many instances, disappear in the sands of the plaiui 
tar distant from the ocean. 



136 



PRESENT POSITION OP THE MORMONS. 



Near the Sweetwater, thej discovered a lake with a depositiou 
of borax, and another with an abundance of soda, which they 
named Saleratus Lake/' and where thej loaded up a few years' 
supply of the alkali, to use in its native state in preparing biscuit 
and bread. They noted the beds of bituminous coal on the 
Platte, and in the Green river basin — the petroleum issuing with 
the springs near Bear river, and tested the poisonous quality of 
other fountains, leaving a warning to the traveller not to suffer 
his cattle to driuk at them. The beds of gypsum, the character 
of the soil, the minerals and geology of the route, were not neg- 
lected in that journal ; and the elevations of the summits on the 
road were barometrically taken. Thus observant and industrious, 
they press on, and emerge cheerfully into the valley of the Great 
Salt Lake. 

The pioneers arrived on the 21st of July, and the Church Pres- 
idency on the 24th, which latter day is their grand epoch, which, 
in the language of the third one in rank, of that corps, on the 
third anniversary, — is the day whose events are of the most 
importance to mankind of any that ever transpired, the creation 
of Adam and birth of Jesus Christ alone excepted.^' 

And there they are, bidding defiance to their persecutors and 
ready to fight for the land that has been fertilized by their labors, 
and made valuable by their perseverance and almost superhuman 
exertions. It has been made sacred to them by the blood of their 
sons, which has flowed in its defence against hostile Indians. It is 
holy ground, set apart to their use by the rites of their conscience- 
loved religion. Nor could they be easily molested. It were more 
than a march to the ancient Aztec city, to carry an army to their 
mountain home. In those distant fastnesses they feel secure 
against any force the United States would send against them. But ^ 
they invite no such attention as this, and seek to evade it; they 
will do all that conscience and a sense of right wiU allow, to avoid 
collision. They feel well entitled to the land, as already well paid 
for — and can but expect a gi-ant for Improvements and Educ-a- 
tional purposes like other new States which will cover all the lauds 
that would be bought in the market. They also feel it dii<3 to 



FEELINGS TOWARDS THE UNION. 



them, to grant them the privilege of self-control ; to exercise jusi 
laws over their own people, and of their faith, by persons of their 
own choice or recommendation, and that Gentile governors and 
judges are unjust impositions upon them. 

They were driven to a land worthless and savage — left three 
years without protection or control — have formed their habits, 
agricultural, mechanical, and religious or moral ; and know better 
than all the world what is suited to their condition. Non-inter- 
ference with the vote of its citizens is the wish of Utah. True, 
they could be annoyed by cutting off supplies of luxuries, and 
blockading the routes by which they receive their poor emigrants, 
but that would at once make a foreign nation in the centre of 
American territory. 

But to enjoy their own laws of a republican character, permitted 
and sanctioned by the Constitution, they are determined upon 
doing, and have the administration of them in their own way. 
Soon they may be numerous enough to demand the position of a 
sovereign State, and knock loudly for admission into the Union. " 

Their feeling toward the Union was significantly shown at the 
third celebration of their memorable epoch of arrival. A small 
part of its history may serve to illustrate. 

At ten o'clock in the morning, the roaring cannon gave notice 
that the time of gathering to the Bowery on the temple block was 
at hand. The dignitaries of "The Church,^' and officers of the 
United States' exploring party were, by invitation, at the new 
edifice of the President, Brigham Young, where they were 
received with all the gentlemanly kindness and urbanity which 
distinguishes the governor of Utah. At eleven a large military 
escort, handsomely equipped, and commanded by General Wells, 
a hero in the three days^ defence of Nauvoo, with a fine band of 
music, followed by twenty-four bishops in official robes, each 
holding a flag, filed in front of the mansion, and halted. The 
guests, dignitaries, and Presidency, were then arranged in pro- 
cession, and all proceeded under conduct of the general, his aides, 
and Marshal of the Day — music playing, the banners waving, 
and the cannon at the Bowery resounding, to the forum, where 
12* 



Vd^ ANNIVERSARY OF THEIR ARRIVAL. 

the exercises were to be held. Here were assembled, in most 
perfect order and quiet, about six thousand persons — all in neat 
holiday attire, and pleasure beaming on every countenance. When 
the Orator, Presidency, Fathers, or ^'aged men,^' and principal 
guests were seated on the numerous benches of the pulpit stand- 
an invocation of Heaven ^s blessing was made by one of the 
twelve. 

Then followed the reading of the order of exercises by the 
Marshal, and the Orator proceeded to deliver his eloquent appeal 
to the pride, the patriotism, and sense of justice of the attentive 
listeners. He recounted their many trials and the glorious result; 
and called on them to uphold their honor and their rights against 
all invasion, and in their name declared an attack upon them for 
this, would be resisted. Speeches were made afterward by the 
President and others, all tending to rouse attention to the character 
of the celebration, and designate more pointedly why and for what 
cause they were there to commemorate the day. 

Next came the pageant of the day, to which we call attention. 
It was the presentation to the governor of Deseret of the Consti- 
tution of the United States, and their own, for his and his 
successors' guardian care. The presentation of the Constitution 
was made by twenty-four "aged, fathers/' silver-headed men, sons 
and descendants of '76. In a neat, brief speech, their foreman 
admonished the governor that those fathei^ before him were soon 
to leave the scene enacting on life's busy stage ; and before they 
went, no more to return, while the present civil governments 
were in being, they desired to place in charge the legacy they had 
received from the past generation, to be transmitted on intact to 
the future, till the consummation of time. This was the glorious 
and divine Constitution, that had been given by inspiration of God 
to the statesmen of an earlier day — and this they asked should be 
placed among the archives of their growing state as a holy 
treasure, and to be regarded "as the palladium of our liberty," 
and the supreme ruler under God, that sits over the destinies of 
the United States; an unembodied power, existing solely in the 
love and faith of its subject freemen. And it must be held 



MORMON DETERMINATION. 



sacred, and every person in the mountains was called to enrol 
himself its sworn defender 3 for portentous clouds are rolling up 
the eastern sky, and the original supporters are soon to break 
allegiance to the silent but eloquent constitution, and, insensate 
by the will of Heaven, will rush to imbrue their hands in fraternal 
blood — while aloof, the chosen depositaries shall cherish the 
holy casket, and descend at last like the eagle from its eyrie, to 
carry back to the repentant remnant that peace by which this 
highly favored land alone can prosper — and, along with the civil 
instrument, that truth which alone can make them free. - 

The festivities were continued by a sumptuous banquet at the 
Presidential mansion, given to those escorted to the Bowery, and 
after an informal return, toasts, music, songs, and joviai speeches 
were showered forth until evening, when the delighted multitude, 
without an incident to mar the harmony of the occasion, dispersed; 
apparently believing that they were the greatest people on earth, 
and their rulers the wisest men in existence. They had been 
told by their Seer that they need not fear any earthly power ; and 
that it was determined to maintain their identity as a State, 
whatever Congress or President at Washington should say or do, 
and the people one and all responded a hearty Amen, it shall be 
so, it is the fiat of justice and of Heaven. Subsequent events 
have proved that practically it is just as they have determined ; 
a State they are, making their own local laws and enforcing them, 
whether under the name of Territory of Utah, or State of 
Deseret — they have made (and is it not just ?) that territory into 
the ^^Land of the Honey Bee,'^ and would fain caii it their own 



CHAPTER Vn. 



PROGRESS AT THE GREAT^ SALT LAKE. 

There are a few items of Mormon belief and practice, and the 
subject of titles to land, to which it may not be amiss to refer. 
The first thing we notice is the working of miracles and curing 
instantly diseases. Claiming all the gifts vouchsafed to the early 
church, this performance of miracles becomes a necessary thing, 
and to their own minds is conclusively done. It is for confirming 
themselves in the truth, not to demonstrate to those without,^' 
who seek after a sign, that the power is given. Evading poisons, 
and healing the sick, are the most usual. An eye-witness related 
to me the following. A mad dog rushed through the streets of 
the city, snapping at every animal it met, and bit a lad severely. 
The cattle all died. The Elders were immediately called to the 
bedside of the doomed boy. Parents, brothers, and relations stood 
dissolved in grief, awaiting anxiously the spasms and dissolution 
of the family pet. The chief priest commands silence — the 
voice of mighty prayer^' ascends in supplication — the conse- 
crated oil is produced — the child is anointed — and the prayer 
of faith restores the son to his overjoyed parents. 

Diseases are held to be demoniac possessions, and by casting out 
the devil, you can cure the afflicted. Professors in the healing 
art are of small account in the philosophy of the healthy, and 
medicines are forbidden by the Prophet, except to the weak in 
faith, who are permitted a meagre diet and mild herbs.^^ With 
inconsistent practice, many make use of the doctor and his drugs, 
however, and in reply to this, allege that they have not yet attain- 
ed to a full measure of faith, but hope to improve till they can 
take up deadly things without injury; and assert that when by 

(140) 



LABOR HELD IN ESTIMATION. 



141 



accident any Saint takes poison, he escapes harmless. Yoluntai-y 
trials are " temptings of the Lords and receive the proper pen- 
alty. The Seer teaches the duty of asking for the Elders^ hntj Is, 
— yet he is said to employ Gentile doctors to cure the Ague 
Fiend, the hardest yet to deal with. This puzzles the faithful, 
but they get over it pretty well by saying, he has infirmities no 
doubt, and the devil is allowed to torment for any dereliction of 
duty — but as Seer, that does not affect him or his revelations. 

The equally well-attested miracles of Mesmerism and Mona 
chism are admitted to be real — only that they are done by Beel- 
zebub, who does it to deceive and make those recipients and dis- 
bursers of favor believe they have divine power. At the present- 
ation of relics or manipulations, the evil spirit in the person is 
driven out by a stronger one; and after the wonder is over, 
returns with a sevenfold violence. Further, the Devil, mistrusting 
that this power was about to be given again, and angels sent to 
minister to the Saints, tried to forestall the effect and instructed 
his imps in the arts of miracle-working. He also gave visions to 
Swedenborg in order to throw discredit on the Spirit teachings of 
Moroni, and is now destroying the Mormon testimony in many 
places by what is called spiritual manifestations. 

LABOR. 

The dignity of labor is held sacred by the Mormons, and ex- 
emplified in their organization and requirements. A lazy person 
is either accursed or likely to be; usefulness is their motto; and 
those who will not keep themselves, or try their best, are left to 
starve into industry. This is inculcated in their creed, though 
the prophet Joseph was excused from physical labor at Kirtland, 
his attention being sufficiently occupied with the government. 
Every one is expected to work and bring in his tithes, and the 
president sets the example in the valley, by working at his trade 
j of carpenter, on his own mills in the kanyon. It is a well-devised 
scheme, and the more flourishing the laborers, the greater is the 
income of the priests. This income is expended on public works, 



142 



CLERICAL INDUSTRY. 



the temple, the bridges, and public charity, and support of the 
families of those on missionary duty. 

The labor for support of oneself and family is taught to be of 
as divine a character, as public worship and prayer. In practice, 
their views unite them so as to procure all the benefits of social 
Christianity without running into communism. The priest and the 
bishop make it their boast that, like Paul the tentmaker, they 
earn their bread by the sweat of the brow ; and teach by example 
on the week-day, what they preach on the Sabbath, concerning the 
virtue of industry. On the pulpit stand they dispense the word 
of the gospel, and worl^ harder than when they plant, sow, or 
reap in the field, or team for wood in the kanyon, or ply the spade, 
the trowel, or the hammer. This brings all orders together, and 
makes them acquainted where no art or concealment of feeling is 
practised, and destroys that distinction of pastor and layman by 
the difference of dress and demeanor, which keeps them strangers 
to each other^s real sentiments. And it gives the priest the ad- 
vantage of knowing the turns of thought, the doubts on doctrines, 
and degree of enlightenment of those who are to be his auditors, 
and he can adapt his discourse accordingly, and make an impres- 
sion. 

Priests are made without regard to their learning or acquaint- 
ance with books — and the object is gained of suiting every capa- 
city^ if a man finds his intellectual strength insufficient in one 
place, he must seek elsewhere for his sphere of action. They un- 
derstand that apparent candor and simplicity in the propagandist, 
are more likely to attract the attention of the uncultivated mass 
than the finest parade of ability and scholarship. Many are ready 
to enter upon an argument with, or express their opinions before, 
one of their own calibre, but distrust the professional polemic, and 
attribute his success in a disputation to ingenious sophistry, and 
remain unconvinced when unable to reply. Hence the frequent 
disclaimer of Mormons, of learning and rhetoric, and reliance on 
the '^moving of the spirit — interior teachings, the commands 
of God, and sense of duty, are the alleged springs of their mission. 
Thus Forsden, last year in Sweden, began his preaching by laying 



MORMON PROSELYTING. 



143 



hands on his brothsr who was ill, and thus curing him, attracted 
attention from the neighbors. To these he related in his simple 
manner, the story of the Prophet in the West, and restoration of 
miraculous gifts to saints. Curiosity was excited among a few pea- 
sants, and the news spread over the city ; then he harangued at 
the street-corners, which caused his arrest by the magistrate and a 
reprimand. He repeated his preaching, and was again taken up and 
fined and ordered to cease his heretical work; but meekly replied that 
he simply preached Christ crucified, and being commanded of God to 
do it, must obey him rather than man. Spectators were moved by 
his simple submission to such views of higher law at the risk of 
imprisonment or of life. Punished, he glorified his Lord aloud in 
praise and song, for being worthy to suffer, and was finally taken 
forcibly across the channel to Denmark, but left several disciples 
to spread his doctrines. 

Involuntary labor by negroes is recognised by custom ; those 
holding slaves, keep them as part of their family, as they would 
wives, without any law on the subject. Negro caste springs natu- 
rally from their doctrine of blacks being ineligible to the priest- 
hood. 

PROSELYTING. 

The Mormon missionaries address the cupidity, as well as the 
religious hopes and fears of those they address. Travelling from 
city to city, calling at the houses, and talking to those on the 
wayside familiarly, and working occasionally at some trade for 
support, they stealthily introduce the subject at heart, and take 
many unawares. It is usual to use the Socratic method, and ask 
if the former church had not gifts, if there were not promised 
signs following,^' and if any church now show^s them — then they 
follow up by exposition of their doctrines, and claim at the Ziou 
of America to have all the promises. If the listener is not a man 
of wealth, he will be told that the command is to gather to the 
mountains, where the finest land is offered for a few shillings, just 
enough to pay for surveying and recording a title to a farm. To 
the peasantry of Europe this is a powerful, an irresistible 



144 



EUROPEAN MORMONS. 



argument. Accustom ed to see the aristocracy owners of the soil, 
they yearn to call a parcel of ground their own, for it conveys a 
feeliog of translation from serfdom to princedom ; and perhaps 
such make the firmest patriots in this new empire. And the 
doctrine of every woman a husband, every Magdalen pure when 
baptised, will secure many of the softer sex ; so that we may not 
be surprised at the sudden conversion of whole families, and tens 
of thousands, as the popular eloquence falle on the ears of those 
who emerge from factories, workshops, and collieries. Glad news 
to such is the command to go to the mountains, where they 
become lords of the soil 3 and, by a simple declaration, can be 
aided thither from the "perpetual charity fund,'' which is liberally 
supplied by the happy ones already at the land of promise. The 
assertion of the president of the stake in England may well be 
credited, who says that thirty-five thousand are enrolled in the 
Liverpool " stake,'' and ready to come over, but not one tenth 
have the means to reach the mountains. Three hundred thousand 
are the estimated Mormons in England and Wales. Zealous 
beyond measure to proselyte, trusting to further instruction when 
they return with their converts, to the teachers, whose official 
dignity carries a prestige of authority, the street preachers cry 
aloud and spare not," baptize by scores all who express a willing- 
ness to be called by "that name" in which they glory. Many 
come back with lungs exhausted and health impaired by snch 
exertions, and often will they point out to you the passer-by, and 
say "that is the holy man who exhausted his strength by preach- 
ing in the open air in London, this word of the Latter Days" — or 
the hero of a missionary army in some part of the world. 



THEIR LAND TITLES. 

They issue a right of occupancy from the State Register's 
office. This is contingent on the grant of the general government, 
of course, and forms one of the subjects on which they may come 
into collision with the supreme authority. They will not, without 
protest, buy the land, and hope that gi^ants will be made to actual 



DTYISTON OF THE LAND. 



145 



settlers or the State, sufficient to cover their improvements. If 
not, the State will be obliged to buy, and then confirm the titles 
already given. 

In the extensive territory of Utah, probably not one acre in ten 
thousand is fit for profitable cultivation, and only the fertile strips 
will recompense the surveying. The immense pasturage around 
cultivable spots will be fed in common, and of course never 
purchased by individuals. 

When the Mormons arrived in the valley, they did not quarrel 
about the fertile, eligible plats, but put a portion under cultivation 
jointly, and made equitable distribution of the proceeds of the 
crop, according to wants, labor, and seed bestowed. The city was 
laid ofi* into lots and numbered ; and by mutual consent they were 
assigned by the Presidency, who selected according to their judg- 
ment, placing those in the vicinity that they wished for good neigh- 
borhood, and allotting off the balance. Each individual paid a small 
sum to meet the expense of surveying and recording. A section 
on the south of the city, six miles square, called the ^^Big Field,^' 
was fenced at public cost, and divided up into five acre lots, with 
convenient lanes between, and those who would actually work 
them, were allowed to choose, or receive by lot, from one to eight 
of these. A Poor Farm of forty acres is in the centre, controlled 
by the bishops. All lines of division and boundary are run with 
the cardinal points. The present limits of farms will doubtless be 
recognised, though the United States' surveys should make different 
boundaries : by purchase in a tract by the State, or from a common 
fund, individuals will be secured in their vested rights. When 
the lands are offered in the market, public sentiment will allow no 
bidders against the Presidency. 

After the assignments were made, persons commenced the usual 
speculations of selling according to eligibility of situation. This 
called out anathemas from the spiritual power, and no one was 
permitted to traffic for fancy profit : if any sales were to be made, 
the first cost and actual value of improvements were all that was to 
be allowed. All speculative sales are made sub rosa. Exchanges 
are made, and the records kept by the Register. The land 
13 



WAR WITH THE UTAHS. 



belongs to the Lord, and his Saints are to use so much as each 
can work profitably. 

We must not forget that these occupants hold themselves the 
Lord's stewards, who are bound to look after his interest, by 
making any unfruitful portion of the heritage produce food for hia 
saints — and, having found a waste tract unoccupied as it should 
be, (for the miserable Utahs are of no account on this supposition) 
and imparted to it by the actual labor of their sinews all ita 
present value, it is doubly theirs, by right divine and subjugation. 
And truly they have a claim by conquest from the roving Indians. 
They first settled on the war-grounds of Snake-Diggers and Utahs, 
interposing between belligerents. Wars are waged continually 
between the bands or sub-tribes, which, with disease, is fast 
destroying them. But when the Mormons extended north and 
south, they encroached on hunting and fishing grounds, and the 
usual winter camping places, and scared off the game. The 
Shoshones have consulted discretion, and, though threatening 
attack, have ^^kept the peace. Not so the Utahs. In the 
winter of 1849 they became insolent in Utah Valley, killed 
cattl-e and boasted of it, entered houses and frightened women 
and children, took provisions forcibly, and compelled those on 
the farms to retire within the fort. Complaints of these things 
were sent to head-quarters, and after all peaceable overtures were 
disregarded, the Utah war was resolved upon. 

Two companies from the City of Salt Lake joined the forces 
in Utah valley, and proceeded to attack the quarters of the Indians. 
The latter were well posted in the dry channels of the Timpano- 
gos, and screened by a cottonwood forest and thick willow clumps, 
but were finally driven out by the cannon and rifles at long shots, 
after three days' skirmishing. The soldiers retired every night to 
the fort, a mile, distant from the battle-field. One young man of 
the assailants was killed. The Indians decamped the third night 
for the mountain kan3^ons, now filled with snow; and the measles 
being among them, the exposure killed many. Old Elk," the 
terror of the mountains, was found dead on the trail. He had 
•ong boasted that no single person or trapper could live with him 



SUBJUGATION OF TNDfANS. 



147 



in the valleys, and numbers ai-e supposed to have fallen under his 
rifie. A party was driven up Table Mountain, but were induced 
to come down and surrender. They were guarded in camp until 
the morning, and then ordered to give up their weapons. They 
refused to do this, and acting in a sullen and hostile manner, were 
fired upon and nearly all killed immediately. A few broke 
through the line of sentinels and endeavored to escape by cross- 
ing the lake on the ice, but were chased down by horsemen and 

ceased to breathe. My informant was an actor in the terrible 
scene, and seemed disposed to paint it in as soft colors as possible. 
A like chastisement was given the year previous to a small band 
of Shoshones, and a second has since been inflicted on the Utahs, 
and the chief, Patsowits, caught and killed by the bowstring ; and 
this thorough work makes such an impression on them that they 
will fear to offend, which is the humane policy. Had public sen- 
timent sanctioned a similar policy with the Seminoles, what 
sacrifices of blood and treasure would have been avoided ! 

About forty were killed by powder and measles ; and the band 
of old " Stick-in-the-head,^' a chief of note, was so thinned that 
they immediately begged for peace. A large number of prisoners 
were taken, mostly women and children, carried into Fort 
Utah, and lodged under the cannon platform in tents until they 
could be distributed among the families in the valley. They 
were fed bounteously on beef, and it was a sight for a painter to 
see this motley group feast on the generosity of the capturers. 
Squaws and children were generously taken into the houses, and 
the trial made to teach them domestic service. But it was a fail- 
ure : they soon deserted the comforts of the white man^s house 
for the snowy home of the kanyons. 

It is a curious matter of reflection, that those whose mission it 
is to convert these aborigines by the sword of the spirit, should 
thus be obliged to destroy them — but they stoutly afl&rm that 
these people will yet, under their instruction, fulul the prophecy 
that a nation shall be born in a day; and when they have com- 
pleted the destined time, will listen to the truth and become 
fair and delightsome people.'' 



148 



INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS. 



THE UTAHS. 

This tribe consists of several bands under different chieftains, 
united by a common language and affinities as well as by numerous 
intermarriages. They range over a large region of country, ex- 
tending from California to New Mexico. They are a superstitious 
race, and have many cruel customs. Some tribes are reputed good 
warriors. 

In the vicinity of the Salt Mountain in Youab Valley is a re- 
markable well or circular pit, at the bottom of which is a spring 
of water which rises a few feet and finds an outlet in the loose 
strata. It is called by the Utahs, Pun-gun. They fancy in this 
resides a child, that comes to the surface at the setting of the sun } 
and when one approaches, it cries and screams for help, making 
most frightful contortions; but should any attempt to aid the 
child to escape, they would be carried to the lower regions. It is 
the ghost cave of the Indians, and in it is the Blue Beard of the 
squaws which frightens into obedience unruly pappooses. Near 
this spot occurred a tragedy which may exemplify their religious 
notions. The witness of the scene thus relates it. He was tra- 
velling the trail, and seeing a village of the Utah, he turned toward 
it for curiosity and trade. Passing among the lodges, he heard a 
low wail within one of the wigwams. He stopped before it, and 
presently a lad of fourteen years apparently, came out sobbing 
bitterly, and sat down, placing his face in his hands and resting 
them upon his knees. Several Indians collected about the place, 
and in silence appeared to be waiting for some event of import- 
ance. He heard a sound like that of loading a rifle within 
the lodge. An exclamation of satisfaction escaped from a robust 
brave, as he emerged from the narrow entrance, as though he was 
now sure of accomplishing some desirable object of long contem- 
plation. 

The boy sprang up with a piteous shriek at the sound, then as 
if resigned to his fate, he cast one lingering look at the snow-capt 
hills — then dropping his head, closed his eyes to the light 
day, and was shot through the heart by the unrelenting savage. 



USAGES OF THE UTAHS. 



149 



On inquiry, the trader was told that this boy was a prisoner, 
taken long since from a neighboring tribe, and that he was sent 
off t) take care of his master, who had that morning died. Such 
prisoners they keep to accompany the deceased to the happy 
iiunting-grounds in the spirit world. 

When they have no captives, if a person of note dies, and a 
stranger is with them, the rights of hospitality are disregarded, 
and the visitor must be sacrificed to the manes of the departed. 
This requires the trading bands to be vigilant and in force ; for 
should a runner come in with the news of any killed in battle 
with their enemies, the most friendly feelings would be instantly 
converted into those of destruction, to satisfy their religious 
custom. When a chief dies, his lodge is burned, the horses and 
dogs are killed, and all his arms and cooking utensils are buried 
with him. Burial-places are sought high up the kanyons, usually 
in clefts of rock ; and boulders are heaped around, leaving a small 
opening, into which food is thrust for several weeks after the 
sepulture. 

Chieftainship descends from father to son. A late chief, acting 
on the plurality law, left above thirty sons, most of whom have 
Mnall clans under them. His true successor is a fine brave Indian, 
fvith the largest band immediately around him; and he exercises 
control over all when he chooses. He is a friend of the Mormons. 
A half-brother of his, named Walker, has become rich and 
celebrated for his success in stealing horses from the Mexicans. 
Re has a large drove of cattle, with many followers. He lately 
located near the San Pete settlement, and professed a strong 
desire to learn agriculture from his civilized neighbors, and 
promised conformity on the part of his band. This is the man 
who, regarded in the mountains as a petty adventurer, has often 
been so romantically eulogised in the States, and furnishes a theme 
of praise among the Mormons, being esteemed a trophy to the 
power of their religion, a kind of first-fruits of their policy. But 
ere this he may have resumed his robber habits, and frustrated 
*he intention of his Mormon friends of making him the head 
chief of the tribe. 
13* 



POST TO CONTROL INDIANS. 



The different tribes of the Utahs are frequently at war with each 
other, and they have an eternal national war with the Shoshones 
The Mormon settlements partially interpose between the two 
great tiibes, exerting an influence upon both, and ensuring 
them a controlling power ultimately. But the most eligible 
position for a commanding influence over the mountain tribes, is 
to be chosen in the Green Kiver Basin, either on Black^s Fork, 
where Fort Bridger is built, for a defensive trading post, or on 
the Colorado or branches. It could control and aid the emigrant 
travel to Oregon and California, as the routes must fork in that 
section. The Snakes or Shoshones, estimated at several thousands, 
are on the north. The Crows are to the north-east. This band 
numbers eight hundred lodges, and is under the most military 
and severe training. A principal chief governs despotically. He 
has a council of ten, which is convened every night to relate the 
occurrences of the day, and give plans for the morrow. On the 
march no one is permitted to leave the ranks without the signal 
of the chief. When camp is to be made, the chief, who is 
always two hundred yards in advance, halts and throws down his 
horse-trappings, and no one is to come nearer *^his medicine'^ 
than a prescribed distance, without call. His lodge is set up by 
the squaws, and others then encircle it. Death is the penalty of 
disobedience. Sub-parties are sent off for plunder, under similar 
discipline. The Sioux tribe is on the east of the basin; the 
Oglallahs, or Cheyennes, to the south-east, and the universal 
Utahs to the south, all of which need no further description. 

A fort and Indian agency, on this neutral or war-ground of all 
these tribes, would communicate with each. All their plans 
could easily be discovered. They could be played off against 
each other, and advantage taken of the?r animosities. If a 
humane policy is the proper one, then here is the place for a 
pacificator, . and the interposition of good offices to prevent their 
internecine contests. And no more influential person could be 
found in an agency there, than the enterprising man already 
connected with them by marriage and habit, and who now resides 
as a trader at Fort Bridger. 



SKETCHES BY AN OLD TRAPPER. 



The builder of Fort Bridger is one of the hardy race of 
mountain trap|3er.s who are now disappearing from the continent^ 
being enclosed in the wave of civilization. These trappers have 
made a thousand fortunes for eastern men, and by their improvi- 
dence have nothing for themselves. Major Bridger, or ^^old Jim," 
has been more wise of late, and laid aside a competence ; but the 
mountain tastes, fostered by twenty-eight years of exciting scenes, 
will probably keep him there for life. He has been very active, 
and traversed the region from the head-waters of the Missouri to 
the Del Norte — and along the Gila to the Gulf, and thence 
throughout Oregon and the interior of California. His graphic 
sketches are delightful romances. With a buffalo-skin and piece 
of charcoal, he will map out any portion of this immense region, 
and delineate mountains, streams, and the circular valleys called 
^^holes,^^ with wonderful accuracy; at least we may so speak of 
that portion we traversed after his descriptions were given. He 
gives a picture, most romantic and enticing, of the head- waters of 
the Yellow Stone. A lake sixty miles long, cold and pellucid, 
lies embosomed amid high precipitous mountains. On the west 
side is a sloping plain several miles wide, with clumps of trees and 
groves of pine. The ground resounds to the tread of horses. 
Geysers spout up seventy feet high, with a terrific hissing noise, at 
regular intervals. Waterfalls are sparkling, leaping, and thunder- 
ing down the precipices, and collect in the pool below. The river 
issues from this lake, and for fifteen miles roars through the 

I perpendicular kanyon at the outlet. In this section are the 
Great Springs, so hot that meat is readily cooked in them, and as 
they descend on the successive terraces, afford at length delightful 
oaths. On the other side is an acid spring, which gushes out in a 
river torrent; and below is a cave which supplies "vermilion" 
for the savages in abundance. Bear, elk, deer, wolf, and fox, are 
among the sporting game, and the feathered tribe yields its share 
for variety, on the sportsman's table of rock or turf. 

, Another region he visited and trapped in, lies to the west of the 
Del Norte, and north of the Gila. This he represents as once the 

' abode of man, where there are gigantic ruins of uu^onry, which 



152 



ROUTE OF A RAIL-ROAD 



he describes with the clearness of a Stephens. Trees have grown 
over these destroyed towns, and fruits and nuts load their branches ; 
and among the animals are the wild boar and grizzly bear. His 
own words are : this fertile place is large enough for three States, 
and is the most delightful spot that ever Grod made for man.'' 
As a guide for explorers the services of that man would be in- 
valuable. 

The public attention has been called in Missouri to the feasible 
line of road from Western Missouri to the Great Valley — and 
where the proper track for the Pacific Railway may be found if 
built from the Missouri river near Independence. This route 
would take the line of the Kanzas, up the Republican fork and 
across to the South Platte, and thence along the Lodge Pole Creek 
to the south terminus of the Black Hills, where they would be 
turned ; and then across the rich Laramie plains, leaving the 
Medicine-Bow Mountains on the south, and crossing the North 
Platte into the South Pass, over the Coal Basin, skirting the Bear 
River Mountains at the northern base, near Bridger's Fort ; and 
through the Bear and Weber Kanyons, which are represented 
by the mountain men as level and practicable, and confirmed by 
distant views as probably correct, issue upon the Kamas prairie 
to the Timpanogos, and course down its banks to the Valley of 
Lake Utah. 

It is not always reliable information which we gain from the 
mountain travellers; but, from the descriptions given me by them, 
the best route from Utah lies through the passes to Seveir Lake, 
and south-west to the depression in the Sierra Nevada north of 
Los Angeles, where the Tulare valleys are entered, and from which 
a port is to be selected on the Pacific. The Mormon settlements 
nearer the rim of the basin, may incline the road more south, and 
would not much increase the distance. This wonderfully level 
track across the country strikes the mind with surprise. One 
scarcely is conscious of a hill on the road, while the immense 
mountains are ever before and around him. 

The difficulty this work will encounter lies in the accumulation 
of snow in the Weber and Timpanagos kanyons, during winter j 



GRANDEUR OF THE GREAT RAIL-ROAD. 



153 



exploration and observation are required to settle its presumed 
practicability, and the amount of this impediment. Such a road, 
within our limits, would be the crowning work of the century 
and indeed of all antecedent time, so gigantic is it in its con- 
ceptions ; and it would be so wonderful in its results on trade and 
the destinies of the race, that all other human eflforts sink in insig- 
nificance before it. It would strike the centre of the great valley 
of the Mississippi, and the commerce and the travel that should 
come from Asia would there divide, to take its appropriate desti- 
nation for the Grulf of Mexico or the St. Lawrence; or on the 
many lines of internal communication to the Atlantic seaboard. 



CHAPTER Vlll. 



SELF-GOVERNMENT. 

In concluding our notico of this new territor}^, and of its pe« 
culiar people^ we may be allowed once more to advert especially 
to the subject of controlling the government of Deseret. We 
hear that officers sent to them have had their feelings so outraged 
by treasonable expressions toward the supreme government, that 
they have felt it obligatory to return and place the subject before 
the national legislature and the chief magistrate. This may have 
resulted from too hasty conclusions, and from not marking the qual- 
ifications usually due to such denunciations. Among portions of 
the citizens in every State, we may hear very opprobrious terms 
used. The government is frequently proclaimed corrupt, and dan- 
gerous to liberty, in part}^ declamation ; the writers and speakers 
being ready to defend it, however, with their life-blood. 

We know that a prejudice existed against the appointment of 
one, at least, who went to Utah in an official capacity; and the 
Mormons were prepared to receive him with distrust, politically 
and morally; and however unjust the prejudice, it undoubtedly 
had its bad influence — and in attacking one with harsh language, 
the cause may have become common to all. 

Now, the Mormons regard themselves as placed in the position 
of our colonial fathers ; with this difference; that the latter felt the 
burden of taxation without representation; the Mormons, an injus- 
tice in enforcing law upon them hj foreigners. They have formed 
every thing on the model of a republican State ; adopted a consti- 
tution, liberal, free, and tolerant of conscience in religion ; and 
have a criminal code which applies to their peculiar situation and] 
feelings. It is not to be presumed that lawyers, though eminent j 

(151) 



EQUITABLE RIGHTS OF UTAH. 



155 



at home, fresL from crowded cities, and long drilled in municipal 
laws suited to old societies, can have a just appreciation of the 
statutes of this wild country, which have a peculiar religious sanc- 
tion from the dependence of the civil code on ret^ elation. Nor 
will the community place the same confidence in such judges, as 
in those whose acquaintance with their views and opinions is a 
matter of experience ; and whose interests and sympathies are 
bound up together. And, too, we must remember that it is a 
matter of conscience to bring all subjects of contention before the 
heads of their own family, the household of the church. 

So long, therefore, as they demean themselves as good indus- 
trious citizens of the United States, being geographically separate 
from other society, with no admiralty causes to adjudicate, and 
pay their portion of the indirect taxation for the support of the 
government, they feel a right to demand confidence enough to be 
allowed to have persons resident among themselves appointed to 
administer the laws over them, and fill official stations. And they 
can well laugh at all attempts to control them otherwise, though 
they may submit in appearance, to prevent collision. 

And then comes up the question, is not this after all a matter 
of political etiquette ? and is it wise to make a case of treason on 
such a point ? They acknowledge the binding force of the 
Constitution, claim to be American citizens,' and also to have a 
right that this courtesy be allowed them, after so many privations 
and suflferings endured, to make the wilderness and desert a 
habitable abode. To enforce rulers over them from abroad, by the 
power of the bayonet, will entail perpetual war, or necessitate the 
raising a force, and making an expenditure of funds such as has 
never been called for at one time since our national existence. 
The theatrf> of war would be at a great distance, and all supplies 
must be transported a thousand miles on land carriage. And what 
would be gained in the end ? Nothing but the same as persecu- 
tion has heretofore given, increase of Mormon power. Indeed 
we are not sure but the leaders would like a display of force, in 
order to raise the cry of persecution, and turn the attention of 
the people upon foreign objects. 



156 



IMPOLICY OF ATTEMPTING COERCION. 



But we must remember that this is no insurrection of a part of 
ft State : the population is a unit, engaged to a man in the sacred 
cause of their freedom to govern themselves. They must be 
convinced of error, before they can abandon their position without 
disgrace. And it will be a diflficult thing to bring one portion of 
American citizens to fight against another on such an issue. The 
Herald at once proclaims that liberty of conscience is infringed. 
They will be considered as contending for the right to worship 
Grod in their own way, and to govern themselves as other States 
do. Separated by a three months^ journey from other organized 
communities, they are harmless to them, and individuals must 
seek molestation, if they have aught to complain about. Why 
then, they will ask, peril life and treasure, when the issue can be 
evaded so easily; and the benefits of their position as a State 
secured to the country, by means which it is generous to adopt, 
and in our power to grant ? 

The principle involved is the right of sovereignty; this is 
already conceded, so far as it can be, to the general government, 
and soon a half million of persons will demand the true position 
of a State, or declare themselves independent of all. Surely this 
looks like the case in contemplation of the wise man, when he 
advised so prudently, leave off contention before it is meddled 
with," which can ' be applied to governments, as well as to 
individuals. 

Smarting under a bitter recollection of violence, that people 
could easily be goaded into rebellion, or rather into a warfare. A 
small force would be a vain insult among them. Protection they 
ask not, nor do they need it. They are a mighty moral force 
among the threatening cloud of savages on our frontiers. They 
compel the Indian to respect them. But they would dread far 
more than this the contaminating influence of an idle soldiery 
among them, upon industry, — yet more than all, the gallantry of 
the epaulettes upon their peculiar institution of polygamy. A 
jealousy would be provoked that would be cruel as the grave. 

The whole United States army would probably be insufficient to 
garrison and control a hostile population on a line of five hundred 



DISTURBING ELEMENTS IN UTAH. 



157 



miles, and enforce civil law by foreign judges. It could onlj 
compel' martial law to be acquiesced in, if once buch a force were 
well quartered upon them. 

INTERNAL DISCORD. 

The causes which are at work to break up the clanship and 
oneness of the Mormon State, and reduce that people to the 
situation of others, with various beliefs and interests, are among 
themselves. The bursting power is internal, and loosening the 
outward bands will discover it. In short, the true policy is 
apparent, and may be given in their own peculiar phrase, let 
them severely alone f which they apply to Gentile rulers sent to 
control their movements. 

The first disturbing element we notice is the introduction of 
polygamy; and yet they give, or profess to allow, all the freedom 
to the females that is found in any Christian nation. Their 
education is quite as free and liberal as to the other sex, thus far. 
But with all this do we find them advocating the inferiority of 
woman in dignity of station. " Gentile gallantry and fashion^' is 
declared to have reversed the natural relationship and social 
position of the sexes ] and that to give the post of honor or of 
comfort to the lady, is absurd. If there is but one seat, they say 
it of right belongs to the gentleman, and it is the duty and place 
of a man to lead the way, and let the fair partner enter the house 
or room behind him. The glory of a woman is constantly held 
forth to be a " mother in Israey^ or, literally, a child-tender. 
The delicate sentiment of companionable qualities and mental 
attachments finds no place in the philosophy of plurality of wives, 
separate from grosser sensuous enjoyments. While introducing 
this great cause of disruption and jealousies into families, they 
cultivate in schools the arts of peace that tend to soften and elevate 
a community; and the antagonistic principles, one of rolling back 
to Asiatic stationary civilization, the other of progressive enlight- 
enment, must come into collision. What then is the efieot of 
their law of plurality ? The sacred bond between two persons, by 
U 



158 



ADVANTAGES OF REGULAR MARRIAGE. 



which the twain are one, as declared in Holy Writ^ is desecrated. 
In that union of the wills, the affections, and interests, lies the 
hope of improvement of the condition of society ; and by the 
laws of nature and of grace, there the peace of the world and 
realization of the Christian's hopes are centred. The law estab- 
lishing the family circle was the first promulgated in social 
relations. And again the sacred historian takes up the theme, 
and relates the full-souled offering of his heart by Adam, and 
acknowledgment of equality and sameness ; and then he declares 
that for this cause a man shall forsake all other ties, to obey the 
sacred promptings of a guileless nature, in conjugal fidelity to one 
wife — which became the law of grace, and four thousand years 
after was once more affirmed as the holy rule of the sexes, by the 
Lord of all. 

Nor is this a subject ever to be lightly touched, for he is a 
traitor to his country, to humanity, and to himself, who can point 
the finger of scorn, or lessen in the minds of any, the sacredness 
of the dual marriage; and, as all are scholars, from the cradle to 
the grave, as well as teachers in the social world, let every rightly 
balanced mind exert itself to learn, and to picture the delights and 
the sorrows of homey on the truthful basis of their heaven-born 
origin. When the lofty genius of the poet rises highest in scenes 
that enrapture and gladden less gifted minds, what inspires but 
this spirit of love — when the statesman is tossing restlessly on the 
waves of ambition, or the warrior rides fearless on the heights of 
a thousand dangers, their souls are nerved to their tasks by the 
rewards of love's admiration ] and the peace of the Christian 
nestles in the heart, and bids each pure soul cherish, in calm 
sublimity, the love of its nearest and dearest neighbor; and all 
turn for beauty of expression and truthful illustration of the social 
good, to the appropriate comparison of ^*the love of woman.'' 
Let nothing then come between the object of regard and the whole 
affections — but rather call in aid every thing that can strengthen 
the union of souls, and bring it to perfection. 

To offer the person for a companion, and withhold the affections, 
would be like the Siamese twins in the death of Chang, while 



FEELINGS OF THE YOUNG MORMONS, 



159 



Eng should live, a body attached to, but not of him— it would be 
the embrace of a corpse, galvanized into some of the motions of 
life ; but the warmth^ the virtue of the vital principle, departed 
for ever. And this must soon become the social fate of our 
mountain brethren, unless a change comes over the spirit of their 
revelations, and they return to the primitive law of the marriage 
relation. 

EFFECT OF PLURALITY ON THE YOUNG. 

A second consideration, arising from the same cause, is in the 
relation of parents and children. Separated now from those who 
can persecute them, it is hard to keep up the enthusiasm of the 
mass, by reference to the persecutions heretofore endured. But 
to the young, the children of the mountains, these are "oft-told 
tales,^' jejune and tiresome. The youth there are no fanatics, 
and seem to care but little for the detail of doctrines. 

And the contemplation of plurality is highly distasteful to the 
young ladies of any independence of feeling, however acquiesced 
in by the more advanced in age. The subject was placed before 
one in its practical light, and the reply was most decided and 
prompt against such an arrangement. Asked if she could consent 
to become Mrs. Blank, No. 20, or No. 40 — or if now in youth- 
ful life she was espoused to one of her choice, and who was all the 
world to her; and then, though ranking No. 1, when the first 
blush of beauty had departed, she could be contented to have the 
husband call at her domicil after several weeks^ absence and say, 

I am really glad to see you dearest, and how delighted it would 
make me to spend an hour here, but — and, by the way, have you 
seen my last bride No. 17; how sweet a girl she is — really I'm 
sorry to leave you so soon,'' — the subject was cut short by the 
reply, stern and true, *^ No Sir, I 'd die first." We are informed 
that many on the frontiers have deserted the " sealed relation " 
and married half-breeds and Potawatamies, preferring such a 
life as that in the cabins of Nebraska to the ennui of the other. 

Young mon, too, feel insecure in proposing to embarii in the 
matrimonial vessel. They must naturally feel envious, when tb^ 



IGO 



THE FAMILY RELATION. 



young women treat them with disdain by yielding to the advice of 
ambitious mothers, and attach their fortunes to the hem of a pres- 
ident or apostle^ in order to obtain a celestial queenship among the 
dignitaries of the world to come. 

Of all the children that have come under our observation, we 
must, in candor, say, that those of the Mormons are the most law- 
less and profane. Circumstances connected with travel, with occu- 
pations in a new home, and desultory life, may in part account for 
this : but when a people make pretensions to raising up a " holy 
generation ^ ' and are commanded to take wives for the purpose, 
we naturally look at the quality of the fruit produced by the doc- 
trines; — and surely they would not complain of the Scripture rule, 
"by their fruits ye shall know them.'' 

Additions from abroad, and conversion of adults, can never sus- 
tain such a society, if the youth and children do not imbibe the 
principles that form the community and give it life and vigor — it 
is the young ayIio are to transmit and inculcate them, or else, being 
at variance with their feelings and enlightened reason, the charac- 
ter of that society must soon change. For what constitutes society ? 
It has been said, men make the state — this is true when the idea 
comprehends the humanity of man, wife, and children. No en- 
during blessing was ever promised to a people, without their chil- 
dren being expressly mentioned as participants; and heavenly 
pictures of a flourishing commonwealth are united with the merry 
gambolings and cheerful sounds of the young playing in the 
streets of busy cities. Break up the harmony of thought and 
purpose between the parent and child ; make a man's enemies of 
his own household every where, and what becomes of society ? 
It is at the Jio?ne, at the fireside, at the familj- altar, that the prin- 
ciples and dispositions are obtained that govern individuals ; and 
^s the prevailing tone of the families, so will be the neighbor- 
hood, the towns, the legislatures ; so too will be the union princi- 
i)le that constitutes a peaceful, prosperous state. 

The first form of government, arising out of man's necessities 
and wants, is seen in, the family, and is the Patriarchal; its in- 
ception is intuitive. v_ 



THE MORMON SYSTEM. 



161 



NoWf we find the Mormons start in theory, right on the princi- 
ple of Government, as on that of Labor. In true theory, govern- 
ment rests on the Divine Will, and human minds must interpret 
that wall, either by direct revelation, or by Keason, enlightened by 
experience. Expediency, or what promotes human happiness, is 
the rule, but never to infringe on Kevelation. In other words. 
Justice between individuals and nations is the object of law — 
leaving each person all possible freedom to choose his occupation. 
Security of Kights is the true political enonomy; the natural de- 
sire of good stimulates man to work out wealth and prosperity. 

Try, then, this people by their own rule. We find them claim- 
ing to act by Divine Will and in the Patriarchal form. Look at 
its development ! The divine will is changed at once into a 
Bcheme of Human Will — and the latter is made the Lawgiver — 
the Judge — the Executor. If the Seer is the Voice of God, all 
is well — right. The world denies this however. And then it 
falls into an autocracy, despotism. 

So long as the governed people choose to obey one man in all 
things, they are not slaves — they may be secure in life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness,^' in their own estimation. Practi- 
cally thus far the Mormons are so ; and as education is spreading 
right thoughts and will continue to do so, if let alone, among the 
masses of Yankees and Chartists, they will learn how and when 
to throw off the usurpations of a pretended Theocracy. 

In the family, the fostering restraint of authority is necessary 
till a certain age, and then the young bird, full fledged, flies off' in 
joyous freedom, to assume its natural responsibility. So of Col- 
onies — and this one, in the Rocky Mountains, now asks the 
privileges of manhood from the parent States — that granted, and 
the vagaries of its youth on the science of government will be dis- 
carded in the schooling of experience. 

THE BIBLE. 

But the proselyting from other Christian sects will be sadly 
i interfered with, and checked, when the Bible shall be published 
14* 



162 



ADDITIOxNS FROM WITHOUT. 



as altered by Joseph the Seer. To be sure^ each sect that gives 
an interpretation of the scriptures different from the apostolic 
sense, has a new Bible; but they all keep the same words, and 
individual judgment is the standard that causes diversity, which is 
ever changing ; and thus there is left open the opportunity for a 
catholic, that is, universal opinion. But the Bible, printed with 
the emendations which we before referred to, will no more be the 
Christianas book of the present churches, than the Alcoran of 
Mahomet, or the Zendivesta. Then there will be something: 
tangible, showing the tendency of the doctrines, and a direct blow 
be aimed at the "faith once delivered to the Saints/^ it will no 
longer be, in the minds of any, a transition and progression from 
one view to another, but necessitate an apostacy from one religion 
to a difiBrent creed, and to the worship of a different God. 

These adult additions for bettering temporal condition, do not 
add to the strength of the theo-democratic principle of their 
government. This will merely give power to the selfish element, 
to what they already complain is so common, and numerously 
represented by the " Mormonish while, to carry out the 
proposed plan, there is required the most complete disinterested- 
ness ; all that sinking of self in the prosperity of the order, so 
conspicuous in the devoted, holy brotherhood of the Jesuits. 
Whole families emigrate from abroad on account of the desire of a 
son, a daughter, or one parent, who are converts — the faith of 
one or two, perhaps, making the occasion, not the motive, for the 
other members joining the society. 

K fourth disturbing cause lies in the system of tithes. By 
this engine, immense sums are accumulated, and put at the disposal 
of the Presidency, and its corrupting influences of irresponsible 
expenditure will sooner or later be developed. It cannot be long 
before those restless, ambitious, and talented persons, who are 
denied the great privileges which untold treasures secure, will 
become dissatisfied, at the sight of ease and luxury in the managers 
of what they may consider a religious speculation ; and some may 
envy the harems of the shepherds of the flock, supported 
indirectly by the labors of the hirelings. The toiling laborer in 



RIGHT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT. 



163 



the dusty field may raise the question of unequal burdens, aa 
the princely carriage rolls past with the music-band in the train, 
which even now makes melody in the visiting processions and 
pleasure-rides in the mountains. The means for am.using the 
mind of the multitude, and distracting attention from its own 
increasing power, are daily becoming less; while on the other 
hand, the burdens grow more and more onerous, and are less 
voluntarily borne. The pressure for tithes from all parts is again 
vehemently made, and reminds of the times of Joseph, when 
engaged on the Nauvoo temple. 

Nor is the harmony and union of the Presidency so strong that 
it could not be broken. What could happen to the first three, 
with the prophet at the head, can easily occur again. It requires 
no great shrewdness to perceive the growing afiection manifested 
for difierent persons in that board of directors, and parties will 
carry the object of admiration with them. No open organizations 
are yet made in favor of the second in rank, who is reported to be 
the best business man in the valley, but it would require but little 
tyranny, and novelty of doctrine, preached by the Seer, to cause 
the cry of apostacy and ambition. Like Lucifer and Rigdon, he j 
would be declared, by a numerous host, to have forfeited the high 
estate, and a vote of the chiefs of stakes, or expressed will of the 
majority of the people, would depose him. At present he is wary 
of giving revelations, rather hinting that something is soon to 
appear, of wonderful importance. He assures that Joseph the 
Seer has left more work carved out, than five years of faithful 
diligence will accomplish — and when they have fulfilled all the 
duties entailed, then they may ask for more light from th-e angels. 

All these seeds of distrust, ambition, and discontent, are sown 
in a fruitful soil ; and if they are left quietly to germinate by the 
powers at a distance, cannot fail to destroy that unity which 
renders the Mormon community so formidable to any that might 
seek to control it. That people may well be compared to the 
Puritans of New England, in its early settlement — they are as 
exclusive, as energetic, as enduring; have sustained persecutions 
more fiery — have toiled for rocks and snowy lands — contended 



164 



DUTY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 



with the red men, aud subdued a desert for a residence. May nc 
General Gage be directed to dragoon them into rebellion. On 
one area the theo-democratic government has yielded peaceful 
fruits, and been forgotten — on the other, like results, we hope, 
are to follow. 

There appears to be a crisis in the relations of the Mormons to 
the government of the Union, and sober counsels are demanded, 
to prepare the way for a peaceable, honorable future. No reference 
to State pride, no thought of religious aberrations, can be safely 
consulted in the case : nothing counselled but generosity on the 
side of power, towards those who have achieved so much in 
fertilizing a barren region, and made 'Hwo spires of grass to grow 
where only one grew before'^ — nothing but indulgent charity 
should be exhibited to men who declare themselves ready to enter 
upon an honest warfare of reason, enlightened by revelation, to 
maintain, if found good, or abandon, if demonstrated erroneous, 
long cherished opinions — and forbearance may honorably be 
exercised, while they continue to carry out practically the princi- 
ples of republican liberty and human freedom, in accordance with 
American genius, though the method be theoretically absurd ; 
having good assurance that there are improving elements within, 
that will leaven the whole lump.'' Such conservative views 
will produce harmonious action, and the State of Deseret 
become a sound connecting link in the great empire chain, whose 
termini are riveted in the everlasting foundations of the turbulent 
Atlantic and calm Pacific ; those station points, at which the 
ascending sun salutes, and, descending, bids a short farewell each 
day, lightly kissing the snow-capt brow of the lofty mountain 
peak, that looks so serenely down upon the vales, filled with the 
happy homes of peaceful industry. 

CONCLUSION. 

Let us not then be the advocates of Mormonism, and opposers 
of our own form of Christianity, by counselling persecution and 
foreign control. This system is not what it was in its first decAde. 



THE TEST OF MORMONTSM. 



165 



Once it was aggressive, now it is on the defensive — then it was 
violent, now it is politic. The thousand mile wall of space unin- 
habited, hems it in and renders it harmless. The industry of its 
supporters makes it useful to the country. They are more than 
an army against the Indians on the West. The weary traveller 
o the land of Ophir shares in their hospitality. 

Mormonism could not exist as a concrete system among other 
sects. It must rule or it must die. A fair field to test its virtues 
and its faults is before us. Its votaries are now to ascertain its 
claims to truth by prophecy. If, in a few short years, they see the 
great city of New York, its people, its temples, and its wealth, go 
down into the opening earth, and the sea sing a requiem over the 
grave — -if they see the Protestant world become only known in the 
records of the past — if a guard of angels in glittering armor descend 
and guide them back in military array across the desert plains — if 
they hear the groans of the Asiatic nations, dying in frantic bat- 
tle, in myriads, on the plains of Palestine; then may they know 
that the testimony of Joseph was of " the spirit of prophecy. 

This new creed arose out of the strife of conflicting human 
opinions, and is one of the great exponents of the age, in which 
individual mind is struggling to throw off the fetters of supersti- 
tion — and in the rebound to unbridled private judgment here is 
added one more instance of exalted genius enlisted on the side of 
priestly tyranny, and sacrificed on the altar of ambition — carrying 
hecatombs to an " auto da fe.'^ Its founder will survive in history. 
He is embalmed in the affectionate memory of thousands ) and 
as time lends a halo of enchantment to encircle his name, hymns 
of praise and legends of his holy deeds will be sung, and cherished 
by those who believe that the prophet saint of earth is to reign a 
God over a brilliant world of his own creation, surrounded by 
Jiappy queens and carolling children, through his own blessed eter- 
nity. When the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the 
waters cover the sea,'' then will this new church, the handy-work 
of man, fade away and be forgotten. For its virtuous industry we 
praise, for its brotherly unity we admire — and for its induction 
into the one Catholic Church we offer our sincere prayers. 



ADDENDA. 



MORMON CHRONOLOGY. 

1823. 

Joseph Smith announces a visit from the angel Moroni, at Palmyra, 
New York. 

1827. 

Golden plates, eight inches by four, connected by rings and engraved 
with Egyptian letters, given to Joseph by the angel for translation. 

1830. 

Book of Mormon published — Church organized and settled at Kirt- ' 
land, Ohio. 

1831-2. 

New Jerusalem selected in Jackson County, Missouri — and named 
Zion — Corner stone of a Temple laid. 

1833-5. 

A mob at Zion drive the Mormons to Clay County — Kirtland named 
Shinahar, and store-houses, temple, and tithes arranged — Mercantile 
house formed. 

1836-7. 

Mormons driven from Clay to Caldwell, Missouri — Found Fai West- 
Bank of Kirtland established. 

1838-9. 

Bank fails — Danite Society organized — Third persecution in Mis- 
ouri, and the Mormons driven to Illinois. 

1840-1. 

Nauvoo City laid off on the Mississippi — State of Illinois grant extra- 
ordinary privileges — Hostile feelings from citizens and dissenters ap- 
pear. 

1842-3. 

Temple begun at Nauvoo — Charge of Spiritual wives" denied — 
Polygamy granted — Troubles with civil courts. 

(167) 



168 



ADDENDA. 



1844-5. 

Joseph the prophet and his brother Hyrum, repair to Carthage on 
charge of treason — Are shot in jail by an infuriated mob — Brigham 
Young chosen Seer — Violence offered to NauYoo people — Burnings at 
Green Plains. 

1846. 

Property sacrificed at Naiivoo — Mormons emigrate to the Missouri 
Bottom — Cultivate land twenty miles above Platte junction — Battalion 
of 520 men recruited for the Mexican War — Women do field-work — 
Great sickness in camp — Caves dug for winter shelter. 

1847. 

Great mortality and suffering — Indians molest the Mormons — 8th 
April: Seer and advance guard of 143 men depart for the mountains- 
Seeds and implements transported — 21st July : Advance at Salt Lake 
Valley, and 24th Presidency arrive — Ground consecrated for a city — 
Invalid company of the Mexican battalion arrive, and 4000 persons 
come in October. 

1848. 

January : Fort completed, of 7788 feet contour — Thirteen miles of 
fence, enclosing 6000 acres, made — June : Crickets cut down the plants, 
which are renewed four times in some cases — People starving, dig 
roots and eat old hides — Five mills put in operation — Seer returns 
with emigrants — Settlements extended — Temple at Nauvoo burnt. 

1849. 

Utah Valley occupied — Large crops raised — Constitution for a ter- 
ritorial government made — AVithdrawn, and one for a State sent to 
Congress — Survey of the valley by Captain Stansbury and Mr. Gunni- 
son, made by order of United States — Tuilla and San Pete valleys 
colonized — Missionaries sent to France, Denmark, Sweden, and Europe 
gc'jerally. 

1850. 

(iniversity of Deser^t incorporated — Schools opened — Cities laid 
of! in Ogden, San Pete, and Timpanagos districts ; and little Salt Lake 
Valley colonized — Iron mines worked — State-house finished — Gover- 
nor dissolves the State provisional government, and the Territory of 
Utah recognised — Brigham Young appointed governor by the Presi- 
dent — Tithing store-houses built, and adobes made for private dwell- 
ingr, General prosperity. 

1851. 

Census taken — United States judges arrive — Become dissatisfied, 
and withdraw — Legislature protests — Sixteen mills in operation — 
Polygamy openly discussed — Latter-Day Saints ordered to remove 
from the frontier to Utah the coming year. 



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JUST PUBLISHED 



"BEYOND THE SUNRISE ;" 



Observations by Two Travelers. 

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Also in LoYeirs Library, No. 169, - ,20 



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so perseYeringly, they haYe brought together a highly grati-! 
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LOVELL'S LIBRARY-CATALOGUE. 



^lysterious Island, PtII.15 
lysterious Island,PtIII.i5 
"om Brown, at Oxford^ 

: Parts, each — ' iS 

Thicker than Water. . . .20 

n Silk Attire 20 

•cottish Chiefs, Part I.. 20 
cottish Chiefs, Part 1 1. 20 

S'illy Reilly .20 

'he Nautz Family 20 

'.reat Expectations 20 

list.of Pendennis,Pt I.. 20 
list. of PendennisjPt II 20 
. idow Bedott Papers . . 20 
'aniel Deronda,Part I. .20 
.'aniel Deronda, Part II. 20 

JtioraPeto 20 

y the Gate of the Sea. . 15 

ales of a Traveller 20 

ife and Voyages of Co- 
lumbus, 2 Parts, each. 20 
. he Pilgrim's Progress. .20 
iartinChuzzlewit,P'rt 1. 20 
artinChuzzlewitjP't II.20 

heophrastus Such 10 

isarmed 15 

ugene Aram 20 

he Spanish Gypsy, &C.20 

:.st up by the Sea 20 

ill on the Floss, Part T.15 
11 on the Floss, P'tII.15 

other Jacob, etc 10 

"le Executor 20 

Tierican Notes 15 

:e Newcomes, Part I.. 20 
-e Newcomes, Part II. 20 

:e Privateersman 20 

je Three Feathers 20 

-an torn Fortune 20 

le Red Eric 20 

' <dy Silverdale's Sweet- 

^art 10 

ie Four Macnicol's ... 10 
PisistratusBrown,M. P.io 
mbeyand Son, Part 1. 20 
mbey and Son,Part II. 20 

ok of Snobs 10 

J- iry Tales, Illustrated. .20 

1 3^ Disowned 20 

\ tie Dorrit, Part 1 20 

f tie Dorrit, Part II 20 

30tsford and New- 
read Abbev 10 

ver Goldsmith, Black 10 

e Fire Brigade 20 

iie and Hound in Cey- 

•1- 20 

f r Mutual Friend,P't 1 . 20 
rMutualFriend,P't II. 20 

'is Sketches 15 

nda 20 

:holas Nicklebv,P't 1. 20 
:holasNickieby,P't 11.20 
narch of Mincing 

^ne 26 

'nt Years' Wanderings 

Ceylon 20 

tures from Italy 15 

entures of Philip,Pt I.15 
I tures of Philip, Pt II.15 
ickerbocker History 
New York .ao 



237. The Boy at Mugby 10 

238. The Virginians, Part I.. 20 
The Virginians, Part II. 20 

239. Erling the Bold 20 

240. Kenelm Chillingly 20 

241. Deep Down.. 20 

242. Samuel Brohl & Co. 20 

243. Gautran ..20 

244. Bleak House, Part I 20 

Bleak House, Part 1 1... 20 

245. What Will He Do With 

It ? 2 Parts, each 20 

246. Sketches of YoungCouples. 10 

247. Devereux 20 

248. Life of Webster, Part 1. 15 
Life of Webster, Pt. II. 15 

249. The Crayon Papers 20 

250. The Caxtons, Part I 15 

The Caxtons, Part II ... 15 

251. Autobiography of An- 

• thony Trollope 20 

252. Critical Reviews, etc. .. .10 

253. Lucretia 20 

254. Peter the Whaler 20 

255. Last of the Barons. Pt 1.15 
Last of the Barons, Pt. 1 1. 15 

256. Eastern Sketches 15 

257. All in a Garden Fair. . . .20 

258. File No. 113 20 

259. The Parisians, Part I... 20 
The Parisians, Part 1 1.. 20 

260. Mrs. Darling's Letters. ..20 

261. Master Humphrey's 
Clock 

262. Fatal Boots, etc 10 

263. The Alhambra 15 

264. The Four Georges 10 

265. Plutarch's Lives, 5 Pts. §1. 

266. Under the Red Flag 10 

267. The Haunted House, etc. 10 

268. When the Ship Comes 
Home 10 

269. One False, both Fair.... 20 

270. The Mudfog Papers, etc. 10 

271. My Novel, 3 Parts, each.20 

272. Conquest of Granada. ..20 

273. Sketches by Boz 20 

274. A Christmas Carol, etc.. 15 

275. lone Stewart 20 

276. Harold, 2 Parts, each. . . 15 

277. Dora Thome 20 

278. Maid of Athens 20 

279. Conquest of Spain 10 

280. Fitzboodle Papers, etc .. 1 o 
28:. Bracebridge Hall 20 

282. Uncommercial Traveller.20 

283. Roundabout Papers 20 

284. Rossmoyne 20 

285. A Legend of the Rhine, 

etc 10 

286. Cox's Diary, etc 10 

287. Beyond Pardon 20 

2S8. Somebody'sLuggage,etc. 10 

289. Godolphin 20 

290. Salmagundi 20 

291. Famous Funny Fellows. 20 

292. Irish Sketches, etc 20 

293. The Battle of Life, etc... 10 

294. Pilgrims of the Rhine ...15 

295. Random Shots 20 

296. Men's Wives 10 

297. Mystery of Edwin Drood«ao 



298. Reprinted Pieces 20 

299. Astoria ....20 

300. Novels by Eminent Handsio 

301. Companions of Columbus2o 

302. No Thoroughfare 10 

303. Character Sketches, etc. 10 

304. Christmas Books.. 20 

305. A Tour on the Prairies... 10 

306. Ballads 15 

307. Yellowplush Papers 10 

308. Life of Mahomet, Part 1. 15 
-Mfe of Mahomet, Pt. 11. 15 

309. Sketches and Travels in 

London. 10 

310. Oliver Goldsmith,Irving.2G 

3 1 1. Captain Bonneville .... 20 

312. Golden Girls 20 

313. English Humorists 15 

314. Moorish Chronicles 10 

315. Winifred Power 20 

316. Great HoggartyDiamond 10 

317. Pausanias 15 

318. The New Abelard 20 

319. A Real Queen...., 20 

320. The Rose and the Ring.20 

321. Wolfert's Roost and Mis- » 
* cellanies, bv Irving ic 

322. Mark Seaworth 20 

323. Life of Paul Jones 20 

324. Round the World 20 

325. Elbow Room 20 

326. The Wizard's Son 25 

327. Harry Lorrequer 20 

328. Howit AllCameRound.2G 

329. Dante Rosetti's Poems. 20 

330. The Canon's Ward 2 > 

331. Lucile, by O. Meredith. 2 > 

332. Every Day Cook Book . . r ^ 

333. Lays of Ancient Rome. . r- 

334. Life of Bums 2 

335. The Young Foresters. .. 2c 

336. John BullandHis Island 2c, 

337. Salt Water, by Kingston. 20 

338. The Midshipman 20 

339. Proctor's Poems 20 

340. Clayton's Rangers 20 

341. Schiller's Poems • 20 

342. Goethe's Faust 20 

343. Goethe's Poems 20 

344. Life of Thackeray 10 

345* Dante's Vision of Hell, 

Purgatory and Paradise . . 20 

346. An Interesting Case 20 

347. Life of Byron, Nichol. . . 10 

348. Life of Bunyan jo 

349. Valerie's Fate 10 

350. Grandfather Lickshingle. 20 

351. Lays of the Scottish Ca- 

valiers 20 

352. Willis' Poems 20 

353. Tales of the French Re- 

volution 15 

354. Loom and Lugger 20 

355. More Leaves from a Life 

in the Highlands 15 

356. Hygiene of the Brain. ..25 

357. Berkeley the Banker 2(' 

358. Homes Abroad 11. 

359. Scott's Lady of the Lake, 

with notes 2a 

360. Modem Christianity a 
civilized Heathenism.. . . 13 



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